Believe it or not, I was homeschooled--I'm just thrilled I was able to throw and catch the ball! Whew! What an accomplishment.
So obviously things gain momentum when they fall--but how fast do they really go? There's actually a pretty consistent way to track the spacing of a fall from the apex to the nadir. (An extra-fancy way to say "lowest point." Jeff Jackson told my class last week that we'd never get a chance use that word. Boy, was he wrong!)
In half of the amount of time that it takes to reach the bottom, the ball will have only fallen a quarter of the distance. However, it covers the rest of the distance in the remaining time. (Crazy, right??)
Here's a visual of the magic in action:
Unbelievable! Who picked those colors for the diagram?? So strange.
Oh... the ball's also falling "Quarter Down at Half-time." Look at that--a name drop! ...With a ball drop. Oh the wonderful joys of physics and wordplay!
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