This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Bisected8: There's a glaring mistake in the detail. Galileo actually dropped two equally sized balls of different materials. Its generally accepted that he did carry out this experiment, although ot necessarily on the tower.
Looney Toons: Seth, you don't pay attention in science class, do you? Things don't fall faster because they're heavier. At all. Gallileo showed that several centuries ago. The trope is about heroes falling faster by virtue of being heroes, not because they're heavier. Gravity acts more strongly on heroism than it does on mass. <grin>
Morgan Wick: And that's even in the main text of the entry already. Although given his English skills, I don't know if Seth has even gotten that far in science class. </unwarranted snark>
LTR - Heh, the comment about gravity acting on heroism is just too good to leave in the comments, so I'm putting it on the front page. :D
Seth: That was just a typo i meant to say mass. Terminal velocity is 2 x(Mass x Gravity)/air density x surface area of object x drag. So a greater mass does make objects fall faster. Unless i've made a big mistake somewhere. As for my qualifications I have GCSE's in physics, Bio and Chem separately (B,A,B) and an A level in Chemistry. As well as currently doing a science degree (Psychology is a science by virtue we use scientific method). In short *Flips off* we all make mistakes :p And considering i'm dyslexic my english skills are quite good. Considering we have a few tropers with Assbergers syndrome and they dont get any flack for it, it shouldnt be an issue.
The heroism bit it golden though.
Semiapies: Just to nitpick, since I'm bored, but when objects or people fall from enough height to reach terminal velocity, that speed can vary, since it's determined by air resistance. Think of that 007 skydiving sequence where Bond and Jaws fight over one parachute in midair - Bond brings his body more vertical in order to decrease air resistance, raise his terminal velocity, and catch up with Jaws. You could catch up with a falling person that way, in theory. Of course, we're talking falls from skydiving heights, not falling-off-a-building heights.
Ununnilium: That's already in the entry, though - fourth paragraph.
Ununnilium: In the first example, is that Lois And Clark, Superman The Animated Series, or the '50s The Adventures Of Superman, which doesn't seem self-aware enough for that?
Scrounge: I seem to recall reading that, in the Spider-Man comics, Gwen Stacy died because Spide tried to pull this off and failed. If true, would this qualify as a deconstruction?
Seven Seals: That's not quite what happened. Spidey didn't try to dive after her (he knew he couldn't make it), instead he tried to catch her with webbing. He failed (an overzealous editor even added a "SNAP" sound effect, implying that it was the rescue attempt itself that killed her by breaking her neck). This was a subversion (the hero failed to rescue the innocent, which was big) but not of this trope.
Ununnilium: Small point - no overzealous editor; it was in the script. See http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/03/16/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-42/
Red Shoe: I'm not sure that this bit:
Isn't misleading. It sort of gives the impression that it's just a matter of the difference in mass between two falling objects "not being big enough". The key difference has less to do with the amount of gravitational attraction, and more to do with the fact that the Earth is falling too.
Legendarylugi: I'd like to point out that a person can affect their terminal velocity by the way they fall. A person falling spread eagle on their belly will fall significantly slower than a person diving head first, who has much less surface area to provide wind resistance and thus a higher terminal velocity. If a skydiver jumps out of a plane and maintains his spread eagle position, another diver of similar build can easily wait a few seconds, dive out of the plane headfirst and keep his body pointed straight down like a missile, and overtake the first diver.
Granted, when you apply this on a smaller scale, like a person falling off a 4 story building, those differences are probably too small to matter, but this trope is merely an exaggeration of sound physics, not a direct violation.
Even the title is terribly misleading, because terminal velocity IS variable. How do you think a parachute works? There is no change in mass or volume when the chute is open and closed, all the same matter is there, the only thing that has changed is the surface area has increased, which lowers the terminal velocity.
I'm just too lazy to fix it, but I think someone really should.
