Baseball and slinky dropped side by side

 

 

Observations

Picture of drop

Slinky on right, baseball on left.

All 90 coils are held, so that the slinky is fully contracted before release. 

 

 

 

 

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Clearly, the slinky falls faster than the ball. Air resistance prevents the two objects from falling at the same rate. The ball has more surface area than the slinky on which drag can act, and therefore, the ball experiences a lower acceleration than the slinky.

 

Compare with 90-coil independent metal slinky drop.

Compare with vertical contracted, nonsupported drops of plastic slinky.

 

Investigations of Falling Slinky Motion

Introduction

Different types of plastic slinky drops

Observations of a plastic slinky being dropped from different configurations

Back to Different types of metal slinky drops

Observations of a metal slinky, dropped from the vertical relaxed configuration

Physics of a dropped plastic slinky

Results and possible explanations for plastic slinky motion

Physics of a dropped metal slinky

Results and possible explanations for metal slinky motion

Conclusion