Why do I splash?

Classical Mechanics Level 1

If one jumps off a cliff above the ocean, generally one falls towards the surface. Why?

Air resistance slows down your forward motion, leaving the only possible motion as downwards. The earth exerts a gravitational force on you that causes you to accelerate down. The earth is actually moving up towards you. All objects naturally tend to their lowest possible height.

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David Mattingly by David Mattingly

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3 solutions

Discussions for this problem are now closed

Daniel Liu
Jul 10, 2014

Gravity is a force that attracts objects. You are attracted to the Earth, thus you fall down.

11 Helpful 1 Interesting 3 Brilliant 0 Confused

Hm I don't quite understand what you mean by 'towards the surface'. What is "the surface"? Surface of water? The ground? The low point?

John M. - 6 years, 11 months ago

How this explaination lead you to answer @Daniel Liu

sandeep Rathod - 6 years, 6 months ago

Wow... also... gravity GENERALLY makes you fall towards the surface? ¬_¬

Ray Flores - 6 years, 10 months ago

Some how I disagree that gravity is attracting us towards the surface, its actually the space time curve around the earth that pushes us towards the surface.

Mridul Goswami - 6 years, 11 months ago

yeah it can be but is there any scientific proof?

Anamaya Sharma - 6 years, 10 months ago

Here what do you mean by the surface ? Clear it

Manish Kumar - 6 years, 10 months ago

More precise way of stating this is that objects are attracted towards the center of the earth (not surface) due to gravity. At the same time earth is attracted towards the center of object away from it but owing to the large mass (as compared to light objects like us) of it, its acceleration is negligible.

Snehal Shekatkar - 6 years, 11 months ago

I agree. Gavitational theory states that all and every objects exerts gravity due to their mass bending the space.

Morpheus Shape - 6 years, 11 months ago
Simon Tran
Dec 29, 2014

Gravity is a force that causes objects to attract to each other. Thus when one jumps, they are pulled back to the earth. Technically, the earth is also attracted to the jumper also, but the force from this effect is miniscule.

3 Helpful 0 Interesting 1 Brilliant 0 Confused
Dave Dave
Jul 24, 2014

Gravity is scarcely-understood force that causes objects to fall towards the centre of the Earth until stopped by a greater force or an unmovable object.

1 Helpful 0 Interesting 1 Brilliant 0 Confused

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