![]() ![]() " Īccording to a tale that may be apocryphal, in 1589–92 Galileo dropped two objects of unequal mass from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. According to Shlomo Pines, al-Baghdādī's theory of motion was "the oldest negation of Aristotle's fundamental dynamic law, anticipation in a vague fashion of the fundamental law of classical mechanics. In 12th-century Iraq, Abu'l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī gave an explanation for the gravitational acceleration of falling bodies. Although, in the 6th century, John Philoponus challenged this argument and said that, by observation, two balls of very different weights will fall at nearly the same speed. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC) discussed falling objects in Physics (Book VII), one of the oldest books on mechanics (see Aristotelian physics). In the Western world prior to the 16th century, it was generally assumed that the speed of a falling body would be proportional to its weight-that is, a 10 kg object was expected to fall ten times faster than an otherwise identical 1 kg object through the same medium. The aerodynamic drag forces in such situations prevent them from producing full weightlessness, and thus a skydiver's "free fall" after reaching terminal velocity produces the sensation of the body's weight being supported on a cushion of air. Thus, falling through an atmosphere without a deployed parachute, or lifting device, is also often referred to as free fall. The term "free fall" is often used more loosely than in the strict sense defined above. an astronaut in orbit) and its surrounding objects, it will result in the sensation of weightlessness, a condition that also occurs when the gravitational field is weak (such as when far away from any source of gravity). When there are no other forces, such as the normal force exerted between a body (e.g. In a roughly uniform gravitational field gravity acts on each part of a body approximately equally. The Moon is thus in free fall around the Earth, though its orbital speed keeps it in very far orbit from the Earth's surface. An object moving upwards might not normally be considered to be falling, but if it is subject to only the force of gravity, it is said to be in free fall. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on it.Īn object in the technical sense of the term "free fall" may not necessarily be falling down in the usual sense of the term. In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. ![]() The angle here is that the GM and players are telling a story, not playing a video game.For other uses, see Free fall (disambiguation). On the other hand, 20d6 will not kill a lot of characters, meaning that a fall of tens of thousands of feet will not kill them, and the GM may decide that that is patently absurd and have death ensue. 20d6 will kill a lot of characters, and for the sake of the story the GM may not want a character to die. ![]() The rules are meant to be guidelines, not constraints. Rather, I would remind everyone of the first rule of D&D: The GM is always right. I'm not suggesting that new rules applying the laws of physics (in our world) or dissecting a 6-second round into sub-components are required or even desired. But, it seems plausible that other entities might be able to act before one has fallen 500ft. Why? Because they are surprised at suddenly falling and hence cannot take an action. I think a more accurate representation, especially for sentient entities, would be 'before one can take an action', explaining why entities who can negate falling by taking an action, such as casting levitate or fly, cannot stop themselves in the first round of action. I also don't like the use of the word 'instantly' here. In non-SI units the acceleration due to gravity is approximately 32 feet per second 2. To me this means it's not inherently unreasonable to use the simple classical physics in this situation: assuming acceleration due to gravity similar to that experienced at sea level on Earth and ignoring air resistance at low speeds: So this all makes sense: 10fps=no damage, 25fps=1d6 damage. A little high-school physics will tell us that a body falling freely (assuming g=32 ft/s 2) for 10 ft. Free-fall, which is injurious, should be faster than that. per round (6 sec.), or at a speed of 10 fps without suffering damage. Back to that in a moment.įeather Fall allows one to fall at 60 ft. Mostly.įree-falling motion isn't tackled in the rules. The rules have no explicit guidance on falling kinematics. ![]()
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