Terminal velocity and force balance
What Terminal velocity and force balance means in Physics A-Level, as defined for AQA.
Definitions of Terminal velocity and force balance
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Reference: AQA
Without the electric field, the droplet falls at terminal speed when the resultant force is zero, with weight balanced by viscous drag and upthrust ignored.
A vehicle reaches maximum speed when the driving force equals the total resistive force, giving zero resultant force and zero acceleration.
Topics that use Terminal velocity and force balance
- Principle of Millikan’s determination of the electronic charge, e (A-level only) (AQA A-Level)
- Projectile motion (AQA A-Level)
Related terms
- Terminal speed
- Air resistance
- Combining gravitational, viscous and electric forces
- Drag
- Drag dependence on speed
- Effect of drag on projectile trajectories
- Electric force on a charge
- Electric force on a charged droplet in a uniform field
Using Terminal velocity and force balance in the exam
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