Terminal Velocity Essay

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Terminal Velocity and the Effects of Viscosity Introduction: (Purpose, Background Information and Research Questions) The main purpose of this investigation is to find out how terminal velocity is affected by the viscosity of a variety of liquids. Some questions I had to ask myself was not just how viscosity would affect terminal velocity, but also what other factors can act on terminal velocity to create a change. These questions were: * Does the mass of the object affect terminal velocity? * Does the shape or the aerodynamics of the object affect terminal velocity? * Does the drag applied affect the terminal velocity of the object? * Does the viscosity of a liquid affect terminal velocity? * Does the surface area of the object affect terminal velocity? All of these questions were relevant to terminal velocity as all of these different factors all comply together to create one constant terminal velocity. But from here you may wonder what terminal velocity is? The answer is, terminal velocity is the velocity of an object when the sum of its drag force equals the downward force of weight that is acting on the object and hence meaning the object has no resulting acceleration and is moving at a constant velocity. However through research what I found is that you cannot 100% reach the terminal velocity of an object, but only x%(where x is any number between 0 and 100) of an objects terminal velocity as terminal velocity is asymptotic. Though this information is true, we still refer to an object that is falling with constant motion as reaching its terminal velocity and thus say that any object can and does reach terminal velocity. The way the viscosity of a liquid affects terminal velocity refers to the second statement that an object does reach terminal velocity. It directly affects the terminal velocity by lowering the magnitude of the velocity

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