How Does Mass Affect the Terminal Speed of Falling Objects?

[HelloMotto]

one way to determine how the terminal speed depends on the mass of an object is to observe the motion of flat-bottomed coffee filters falling vertically toward a motion sensor. My teacher told me we will do 3 sets of test. first one is with 1 filter, second with 2 stacked filters, and 3rd one with 3 stacked filters and see if there are difference in the time it takes to reach the sensor

#1 formulate an appropriate question for this investigation
so I wrote
does the mass of a object of same shape increase the time it takes to reach towards the sensor?

#2 Write your hypothesis to answer the question
so my answer to my question was
increase in mass increases the time it takes to reach the sensor.(i don't know how to explain this :( )

Did i do this right?

 

[edziura]

For #1, you might consider changing the word "increase" to "change".

For #2, consider the following questions:

How are the forces acting on the object after it has reached terminal velocity related to each other?

How is object's weight related to its mass?

 

[baba89]

Yes, you have formulated an appropriate question for this investigation and have provided a hypothesis to answer it. Your hypothesis is correct, as an increase in mass would result in an increase in the time it takes for the object to reach the sensor due to the influence of gravity. In order to explain this, you could mention that an object with a greater mass experiences a greater force of gravity, which would cause it to accelerate at a slower rate and take longer to reach the sensor. Additionally, you could also mention that the surface area of the stacked filters may also have an impact on the terminal speed and thus the time it takes to reach the sensor.