Free Fall in a Vacuum Tube

This model demonstrates a classic device for examination of **free falling objects**. It shows that all objects experience the same **gravitational acceleration** and **fall at the same speed in a vacuum**, but in the air, the **air resistance slows some objects down more than others**. When the air inside the tube is at **atmospheric pressure**, the feather falls significantly more slowly than the coin.



The vacuum pump will bring the air inside the tube down, *making the feather and the coin appear to drop at the same rate*. It was **Galileo** himself who first discovered that in a vacuum, if you were to *drop two objects from the same height, they’d hit the ground at exactly the same time, regardless of their respective weights*.