What You’ll Learn

Free fall refers to the motion of an object under the influence of gravity alone, with no other forces acting on it, such as air resistance. In a vacuum, all objects in free fall near the Earth's surface accelerate downward at a constant rate of approximately 9.8 meters per second squared (m/s²). This acceleration, known as gravitational acceleration, causes the object's velocity to increase linearly over time. Free fall is a fundamental concept in physics, illustrating the uniform acceleration due to gravity and serving as a basis for understanding more complex gravitational phenomena.