Free Fall Calculator
Free Fall Calculator
Free fall is motion under gravity alone (no air resistance in this calculator - an idealized case). Enter either a falling time or a drop height, and this calculator finds the other two related quantities, along with a graph of how far the object has fallen at each moment.
Ignoring air resistance is a reasonable simplification for dense, compact objects falling relatively short distances — a dropped coin or a thrown ball behaves very close to this idealized model — but it becomes noticeably inaccurate for light or large-surface-area objects like a feather or a sheet of paper, where drag meaningfully slows the actual fall well below what this calculator predicts. Using standard gravity (9.81 m/s²), 2 seconds of falling covers just over 19.6 meters and reaches an impact velocity of about 19.6 m/s — the classic textbook free-fall numbers this calculator reproduces instantly for any input.
- Distance fallen = ½gt², and impact velocity = gt, using standard gravity g = 9.81 m/s² - so 2 s of falling covers 19.62 m and reaches 19.62 m/s.
- This ignores air resistance, which is a reasonable approximation for dense, compact objects falling short distances, but becomes inaccurate for light or large-surface-area objects (see the Terminal Velocity Calculator for that case).
- The distance-time graph curves upward, showing that a falling object covers more distance in each successive second - it keeps speeding up.
How far does an object fall in a given time?
Use distance = ½gt² with g = 9.81 m/s² - e.g. falling for 2 s covers 0.5 × 9.81 × 2² = 19.62 m.
How fast is an object moving when it hits the ground after falling 19.62 m?
v = √(2gh) = √(2 × 9.81 × 19.62) ≈ 19.62 m/s.
Free Fall Calculator
Free fall is motion under gravity alone (no air resistance in this calculator - an idealized case). Enter either a falling time or a drop height, and this calculator finds the other two related quantities, along with a graph of how far the object has fallen at each moment.
Ignoring air resistance is a reasonable simplification for dense, compact objects falling relatively short distances — a dropped coin or a thrown ball behaves very close to this idealized model — but it becomes noticeably inaccurate for light or large-surface-area objects like a feather or a sheet of paper, where drag meaningfully slows the actual fall well below what this calculator predicts. Using standard gravity (9.81 m/s²), 2 seconds of falling covers just over 19.6 meters and reaches an impact velocity of about 19.6 m/s — the classic textbook free-fall numbers this calculator reproduces instantly for any input.
- Distance fallen = ½gt², and impact velocity = gt, using standard gravity g = 9.81 m/s² - so 2 s of falling covers 19.62 m and reaches 19.62 m/s.
- This ignores air resistance, which is a reasonable approximation for dense, compact objects falling short distances, but becomes inaccurate for light or large-surface-area objects (see the Terminal Velocity Calculator for that case).
- The distance-time graph curves upward, showing that a falling object covers more distance in each successive second - it keeps speeding up.
How far does an object fall in a given time?
Use distance = ½gt² with g = 9.81 m/s² - e.g. falling for 2 s covers 0.5 × 9.81 × 2² = 19.62 m.
How fast is an object moving when it hits the ground after falling 19.62 m?
v = √(2gh) = √(2 × 9.81 × 19.62) ≈ 19.62 m/s.