Can a gravity driven machine be built such that it accelerates an object faster than freefall?

Your statement is correct. The CENTRE OF GRAVITY may not fall faster than g.

A machine can accelerate a small object faster than g if a heavier object falls slower than g.

See a trebuchet for an example.

Gravity would not be driving the cart. It has a power source - the heavy ruler, and a gearing system - the large wheel driving the small ones. Aircraft can dive faster than the speed of sound if they want to. But they AIN'T "falling".

Before posting this and asking questions about unwarranted assumptions, the asker would, if serious, have done better to read through a text on physics.

"The Physics Hypertextbook"

• https://physics.info/

Internet troll posts strange, English-like text with video link:

"Can a gravity driven machine be built such that it accelerates an object faster than freefall?

It seems counterintuitive, but so are DDWFTTW carts. It may be possible, since if speed is increased, so too is the power provided by gravity Fds/dt. Imagine this device vertically constrained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-trDF8Y... with a very heavy ruler. The cart should shoot down faster than g right? It seems like there must be some constraint, e.g. that the center of mass can't fall faster than freefall, but I'm not certain."

Physics · 2 mins ago

• /question/index?qid=20170...

From the video link:

"Published on Dec 12, 2008... Another model demonstrating the principle of the cart that moves down wind faster than the wind. Inspired by some ideas posted on the discussion at forums.randi.org, I made a simple cart that is propelled underneath a moving surface, faster than that surface. The large wheel, turning against the direction of movement of the ruler, is very similar to the propeller of the wind-powered cart, turning against the wind."

Several questions occur in the post, as does at least one unwarranted assumption.

The video appears to be a table magic diversionary tactic.

Essentially the inquiry is as follows.

Premise:

I do not have sufficient familiarity with forces involved in velocity and acceleration.

Nevertheless I have a schema which seems to be contradicted in the video.

I want readers to agree with my unwarranted schema.

I do not have the urge to read up on acceleration due to gravity.

Conclusion:

It may be possible to build a machine that soley by the force of gravity accelerates some unspecified object faster than can be accomplished by the force of gravity alone.

Its modus operandi:

dis•or•gan•ized think•ing

noun

A mental state characterized by inability to evaluate information and mental content by means of critical thinking.

Its persona:

"supastremph

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In related news:

"In orbital mechanics and aerospace engineering, a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by is the use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically to save propellant, time, and expense. Gravity assistance can be used to accelerate a spacecraft, that is, to increase or decrease its speed or redirect its path. The "assist" is provided by the motion of the gravitating body as it pulls on the spacecraft. It was used by interplanetary probes from Mariner 10 onwards, including the two Voyager probes' notable flybys of Jupiter and Saturn."

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist

Relatively recently in the history of our species this has been elucidated in some detail:

mo·men·tum

noun

The quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity.

As has this:

"In astrophysics, dynamical friction or Chandrasekhar friction, sometimes called gravitational drag, is loss of momentum and kinetic energy of moving bodies through gravitational interactions with surrounding matter in space. It was first discussed in detail by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in 1943."

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamical_friction

Those things are far more interesting and useful than the content of the post at issue.

A lever would do this. Drop a big thing on the short side, the thing on the long side, that weighs less goes up much faster.

Yes by a simple 2 to 1 pulley system. Thus if one weight is moving in freefall, then the end will be moving in 2x freefall.

Yes.

If you use gearing.