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Free fall is any motion of a body where its weight is the only force acting upon it. 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 and it moves along a geodesic.

An object in the technical sense of free fall may not necessarily be falling down in the usual sense of the term. An object moving upwards would not normally be considered to be falling, but if it is subject to the force of gravity only, it is said to be in free fall. The moon is thus in free fall.

What is gravity?

Definition: The force of attraction by which objects tend to fall toward the center of a mass, as that of objects falling on earth.

Gravity is a force pulling together all matter (which is anything you can physically touch). The more matter, the more gravity, so things that have a lot of matter such as planets and moons and stars pull more strongly.

Mass is how we measure the amount of matter in something. The more massive something is, the more of a gravitational pull it exerts. As we walk on the surface of the Earth, it pulls on us, and we pull back. But since the Earth is so much more massive than we are, the pull from us is not strong enough to move the Earth, while the pull from the Earth can make us fall flat on our faces.

In addition to depending on the amount of mass, gravity also depends on how far you are from something. This is why we are stuck to the surface of the Earth instead of being pulled off into the Sun, which has many more times the gravity of the Earth

Retrieved from : Space Environment

You can also watch all these videos to help you with more information about gravity.

What is Free Fall?

Physics of Sky Diving

Freely Falling Objects and Acceleration Due to Gravity

Acceleration Due To Gravity

Solving problems:

Critical thinking

1. A gymnast practices two dismounts from the high bar on the uneven parallel bars. During one dismount, she swings up off the bar with an initial upward velocity of +4.0 m/s. In the second, she releases from the same height but with an initial downward velocity of −3.0 m/s. What is her acceleration in each case? How does the first final velocity as the gymnast reaches the ground differ from the second final velocity?