feathers

[cassius]

I was trying to explain newton physics to a friend who knows little about the subject and told him how we set mass and gravity and he said "What about a feather, what gravity value would that have and would it float downwards like a real feather"

I thought not and said it would probably drop like a stone unless animated. Any opinions??

[Josh]

Interesting question. I guess it would require air resistance proportional to the downwards-facing surface area at any given time.

[VeTaL]

I also interested this question long time ago: if feather isn't affected by air resistance, it would fall as fast as piece of iron with the same mass (if i remember correctly).

[AggrorJorn]

You could set the mass of the object like you would use light fluctuation. then use the same variabeles of the fluctuation for moving the object to the left and right.

[Canardia]

The only way to simulate air in Newton is to disable gravity for the model. After that you can simulate light and flying objects by adding forces to it in any wanted direction.

[Josh]

Gravity affects a feather per unit mass the same as it affects an anvil per unit mass. Air resistance would be another force vector opposite of the direction of motion. I believe a surface air resistance force like I described would produce realistic motion.