Raindrops fall from very high sometimes, but it doesn’t hurt when they fall on your head. Some showers are very powerful, then the jet does hurt.
Answer
Dear Jasper,
Any object that falls in the air is slowed down by colliding with the molecules of the air. The faster it falls, the greater the braking force it experiences; if the speed doubles, the force is four times greater. The raindrop experiences a constant downward force, its weight. It accelerates her, her speed increases and so does the braking force. When the braking force becomes the same as the weight, they cancel each other out and the speed no longer changes: that speed is called the terminal speed and that is the one with which the drop falls on your head.
The drops come out of the shower head at a much greater speed than the terminal speed. If you had to keep that head out of the window of a third floor, the drops would be slowed down quickly and you would no longer notice any difference with the normal rain on the ground floor .
Answered by
Prof. dr. French Cerulus
physics, especially classical theoretical mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, history of physics .
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
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