If a free falling rock were equipped with an odometer, would the readings for distance fallen each second stay the same, increase with time, or decrease with time?

The question can be simplifued to "will the rock be accelerating, decelerating, or staying the same velocity?"

Think about it and let me know what you think the answer is :)

Tricky question because it doesn't tell you if you've reached terminal velocity. Thus you can potentially have different answers depending on situation.

Terminal velocity is a function of drag caused by air resistance and various properties of the object... since no details of the atmosphere or the object are given, you can safely assume that you are dealing in a vacuum.

You can give a more complete answer by assuming there is an atmosphere though :)

Depends if this is a one word answer or a longer answer needed.

Good point :)

I'm assuming from the phrasing of the question that this is a high school physics question, rather than a college level mechanics course (we never did anything with terminal velocities in high school, aside from discuss the basic concept), but I could be wrong on that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nosnosna

Good point :)

I'm assuming from the phrasing of the question that this is a high school physics question, rather than a college level mechanics course (we never did anything with terminal velocities in high school, aside from discuss the basic concept), but I could be wrong on that.

---

Just finished grade 12 physics so no you are not wrong we did not do much on terminal velocity. We discussed the concept of it but in word problems we ignored terminal velocity.