Terminal velocity

Imagine you're throwing a ball in the air. At first, the ball goes up really fast, but then it starts slowing down. Eventually, it stops, and then starts coming back down to the ground.

Now let's say you threw the ball so high that it could keep going up forever if there wasn't anything to stop it. Eventually, the ball would reach a speed where it wouldn't go up any faster, no matter how hard you threw it. This is called the ball's "terminal velocity."

The same thing can happen to people or things falling from the sky (like skydivers or leaves). As they fall, they start going faster and faster. But eventually, they'll reach a point where the air around them is pushing back up against them just as much as they're falling down. When this happens, they'll stop accelerating and will fall at a constant speed -- their terminal velocity.

The exact terminal velocity of something falling through the air depends on a few different things, like how heavy it is and how big it is. But once it reaches that speed, it won't get any faster no matter how far it falls.