ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Free fall

Free fall is when something falls from a high place to a low place and gravity makes it go faster and faster. Imagine you're standing at the top of a slide at the playground. When you slide down, you go faster and faster because of gravity. Just like that, things that fall from high places go faster and faster because of gravity.

This happens because of something called gravity. Gravity is a force that pulls things towards each other. When you're standing on the ground, gravity is pulling you towards the Earth. When you jump, gravity pulls you back down to the ground.

When something is in free fall, it's only being affected by the force of gravity. This means that there are no other forces, like air resistance or friction, that are slowing it down.

A good example of free fall is skydiving. When you jump out of a plane, you're in free fall until you open your parachute. This means that you're falling towards the ground, and gravity is making you go faster and faster. But once your parachute is open, the air resistance slows you down and you start to fall more slowly.