Year 11 - Science
Terminal velocity
Forces make things change
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit explores forces, interactions, and Newton's laws, including motion, rotation, and momentum. It covers reaction times, stopping distances, and deceleration dangers. Emphasis is on force diagrams, calculations, experiments, and evaluating methods for accuracy and safety.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to use the equation F = m × a to determine and explain the motion of falling objects.
Key Notes
- An object that is dropped experiences a constant gravitational force towards the centre of Earth.
- For a falling object, drag acts in the opposite direction to the gravitational force.
- As a falling object speeds up, the air resistance pushing up on it increases.
- When the resultant force on a falling object becomes zero, the object reaches terminal velocity.
Vocabulary To Learn
- gravitational force: is a non–contact force that attracts objects with mass towards each other
- drag: is a force of a fluid on an object moving through it, in the opposite direction to the object's motion
- resultant force: is the overall effect of the forces acting on an object
- terminal velocity: is the velocity of an object falling through a fluid, when there is zero resultant force
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils may believe that as air resistance increases, a falling object decelerates (slows down).
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the scientific idea in this lesson using two key points.
An object that is dropped experiences a constant gravitational force towards the centre of Earth. For a falling object, drag acts in the opposite direction to the gravitational force.
2. Define this scientific word and use it in context. 'gravitational force'
is a non–contact force that attracts objects with mass towards each other. Include the word in a full scientific explanation, not as a single label.
3. Correct this common scientific misunderstanding.
Mistake: Pupils may believe that as air resistance increases, a falling object decelerates (slows down). Correction: Analyse footage of a falling object played back in slow motion, or frame–by–frame, to show that the speed of a falling object increases, up to a maximum speed, and at no time does it slow down.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Balancing Study Guide
- Changing momentum Study Guide
- Conservation of momentum Study Guide
- Force, mass and acceleration (a = (v – u)/t) Study Guide
- Force, mass and acceleration (a = Δv/t) Study Guide
- Forces in two dimensions Study Guide
- Forces in two dimensions (including resolution of a force) Study Guide
- Moments, levers and gears Study Guide
- Newton's Second Law Study Guide
- Newton's Second Law (including inertia) Study Guide
- Newton's Third Law Study Guide
- Newton's Third Law (with free body diagrams in 2D) Study Guide
- Resultant forces and their effects Study Guide
- Stopping Study Guide
- Stopping (and estimating stopping distances) Study Guide
- Stopping safely Study Guide
- Terminal velocity (including graphical representation) Study Guide
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