How does mass affect the horizontal velocity and distance and drop time of a projectile?

Question

A ball is released at the top of an inclined plane, rolls down the plane onto an elevated horizontal surface, and rolls straight forward until it falls from the elevated surface to the ground. In another experiment, a ball with similar size, but double the mass follows the same path.

How would this affect the horizontal velocity of the ball off the end of the table?

How would it affect the drop time of the ball?

How would it affect the distance the ball flies?

Emily Abbate · Accepted Answer

Mass does not affect either velocity, time, or distance.

Mass has no effect on final velocity or time when an object is dropped from a tower; Galileo is said to have proved this at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Galileo's Leaning Tower of Pisa Experiment is available at https://tutor.hix.ai This basically explains why mass has no effect on projectile analysis results: when writing equations of motion for a dropped object, mass appears twice and cancels out. (It is evident from your question that air resistance is to be disregarded, just as it was in Galileo's experiment.) Hope this is helpful, Steve.

Lily Adams · Answer

undefined The mass of a projectile does not affect its horizontal velocity. However, it does affect the time it takes for the projectile to drop and the distance it travels horizontally. Specifically, a heavier projectile will drop at the same rate as a lighter one, but it will have a longer hang time and cover a greater horizontal distance due to its greater inertia.