In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where its weight is the only force acting upon it. In the context of General Relativity where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on it and it moves along a geodesic. The present article concerns itself with free fall in the Newtonian domain.
An object in in the technical sense of free fall may not necessarily be falling down in the usual sense of the term. An object moving upwards would not normally be considered to be falling but if it is subject to the force of gravity only, it is said to be in free fall. The moon thus is in free fall.
In a uniform gravitational field, in the absence of any other forces, gravitation acts on each part of the body equally and this is akin to weightlessness, a condition which also obtains when the gravitational field is zero such as when far away from any gravitating body. A body in free fall experiences "0-g".
The term "free fall" is often used more loosely than in the strict sense defined above. Thus, falling through an atmosphere without a deployed parachute, or lifting device, is also often referred to as free fall. The aerodynamic drag forces in such situations prevent them from producing full weightlessness, and thus a skydiver's "free fall" after reaching terminal velocity produces the sensation of the body's weight being supported on a cushion of air.
Read more about Free Fall: Examples, Free Fall in General Relativity, Record Free Fall Parachute Jumps, Surviving Falls
Famous quotes containing the words free and/or fall:
“But we still remember ... above all, the cool, free aspect of the wild apple trees, generously proffering their fruit to us, though still green and crude,—the hard, round, glossy fruit, which, if not ripe, still was not poison, but New English too, brought hither, its ancestors, by ours once. These gentler trees imparted a half-civilized and twilight aspect to the otherwise barbarian land.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The morning rose, that untouched stands
Armed with her briars, how sweet she smells!
But plucked and strained through ruder hands,
Her sweets no longer with her dwells,
But scent and beauty both are gone,
And leaves fall from her, one by one.”
—Sir Robert Ayton (1570–1638)