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The first equation shows that, after one second, an object will have fallen a distance of 1/2 × 9.8 × 1 2 = 4.9 m. After two seconds it will have fallen 1/2 × 9.8 × 2 2 = 19.6 m; and so on. On the other hand, the penultimate equation becomes grossly inaccurate at great distances.
Near the surface of the Earth, an object in free fall in a vacuum will accelerate at approximately 9.8 m/s 2, independent of its mass. With air resistance acting on an object that has been dropped, the object will eventually reach a terminal velocity, which is around 53 m/s (190 km/h or 118 mph [4]) for a human skydiver.
Escape speed at a distance d from the center of a spherically symmetric primary body (such as a star or a planet) with mass M is given by the formula [2] [3] = = where: G is the universal gravitational constant (G ≈ 6.67×10 −11 m 3 ·kg −1 ·s −2)
The downward force of gravity (F g) equals the restraining force of drag (F d) plus the buoyancy. The net force on the object is zero, and the result is that the velocity of the object remains constant. Terminal velocity is the maximum speed attainable by an object as it falls through a fluid (air is the most common example).
While the terms speed and velocity are often colloquially used interchangeably to connote how fast an object is moving, in scientific terms they are different. Speed, the scalar magnitude of a velocity vector, denotes only how fast an object is moving, while velocity indicates both an object's speed and direction.
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Newton's laws are often stated in terms of point or particle masses, that is, bodies whose volume is negligible. This is a reasonable approximation for real bodies when the motion of internal parts can be neglected, and when the separation between bodies is much larger than the size of each.
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