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Did you ever drop something and watch it fall to the floor?

Sometimes certain things reach the floor at different times even when they weredropped at the same time. Why is that? Here is a little experiment foryou to do to see what’s going on. It’s fun and cool!

All you’ll need for this fun experiment is some aluminum foil. Your momprobably has some in a drawer in the kitchen or maybe some covering aPot Roast. Just ask your mom! You’ll also need a pair of scissors.Ask your mom to help you with this, too.

Here’s what you do:

Get two big sheets of foil and fold them each in half. Cut out a circle or arectangle in each. You will have two pieces that have the exact same shape.Take the two pieces and hold them at the same height. Pick which onewill hit the floor first. Drop the foil and see if your guess was right. Onepiece may land earlier or later than the other one. Try it severaltimes. You’ll notice that the pieces often land at the same time.

Now take one of the pieces of foil and crumple it into a small ball.All you muscle guys can have fun with this! Hold the ball and the otherpiece of foil at the same height. Drop them at the same time. Predictwhich one will hit the floor first. The ball will land on the floorfirst even though these pieces have the same amount of aluminum foil.

Here’s what happened:

The foil pieces fall to the floor because the earth pulls theseobjects down. The force that does this is called gravity. Gravity pullsyou and everything around you toward the center of the earth, even thewater and the invisible air around us. Your fat aunt Hilda is pulledto the earth by gravity too!

When you drop the pieces of foil, they pass through the air to reach thefloor. The uncrumpled foil meets more air resistance as it falls to theearth than the crumpled foil ball. If there was no air resistance, thepiece of foil and the crumpled ball would reach the floor at the sametime. Scientists proved this many years ago through differentexperiments. One was when they dropped a feather and an iron ball in avacuum. The two objects reached the bottom at the same time! You maywant to try this with other things like notebook paper or a piece offabric from mom’s sewing kit. Just besure that the two pieces are the same size. And don’t try it with yourlittle brother!