if you dropped a Bowling Ball & a Beach ball from an airplane, which would hit the ground first?

The only way the beach ball could hit first is if the bowling ball is INSIDE the beach ball.

This "teacher" (and others like him/her) is the reason I left a lucrative career in nuclear engineering to try to salvage at least some of our children from a lifetime of ignorant subservience to foreigners who aren't enamored by "educational theory".

It comes down to which will suffer the greatest effects from air resistance. The obvious answer is the beach ball since it is larger (greater surface area), as a result is subject to greater frictional forces, which wll have a greater effect since the beach ball weighs less.

But that assume the frictional forces are only dependant on the surface are of the ball. A BIG differences is the bowling ball has finger holes. These fingerholes CAN give rise to turbulant air flow around the bowling ball with will slow the bowling ball down more than the beach ball.

Notice I said CAN. It is dependant on the orientation of the finger holes, and the amount and direction of spin on the ball when it is dropped. If the bowling ball is dropped with the fingerhole point up, and the spin is such that they stay pointing up (no spin or spinning like a top strickly through the vertical axis) then the fingerhole will NOT effect the air flow and the bowling ball will hit the ground first, otherwise the beach ball will hit the ground first.

I think your teachers are a little out there. A bowling ball would not be affected by the wind and the beach ball being blown up would have more resistance to the air. But how about you go get in a plane jump out with the bowling and the beach ball and see who hits the ground first

I think that a more interesting question would be, if you dropped a bowling ball and one of the beach boys from an airplane, which would hit the ground first ?

Bowling Ball

Did your teacher explain that, because I do not believe that is true. She must be taking into account some additional force supplied by the airplane, because all objects that are heavier than air fall at the same rate. Thus, both would hit at the same time, unless the ball can be affected by the wind resistance, in which case the bowling ball would actually hit first. Keep in mind though, the people that posted above are wrong, the weight of bowling ball has nothing to do with it. If a 10 lb weight and a 1000 lb weight were dropped from a stationary height at the same moment, they would both hit at the same moment.

Bowling ball would hit first because of wind resistance would affect a much lighter beach ball. The only way for both object to hit the ground at the same time is in a vacuum... i.e. no wind to resist free falling. Since you're asking about dropping them from an airplane, you're stating that there would be air.

You can do this test easily with a penny and a feather inside a flexiglass cylinder that could be pumped down to reasonable vacuum. You can see for yourself.

Actually, the bowling ball would hit first. I am incorporating Newton's laws, but the beach ball, being filled with what it is flying through, would experience more wind resistance. It's terminal velocity would be much lower than that of the bowling ball, which would continue to accelerate untill it reached it's terminal velocity, which is when the force of wind resistance is equal to that of gravity. The object, then, cannot travel any faster. I hope I helped!

The beach ball would never hit the ground first. The only other way would be that they hit the ground at the same time, and the only way this would be possible was if they were dropped in a vaccuum, and the last time I checked, airplanes couldn't be flown in a vaccuum...

Your teacher is wrong..

Bowling ball would hit first..

Beach ball would be slowed by the air...