Two weights of 1 kg and 50 kg are freely dropped from the top of a building, which will hit the ground first?

Both weights will hit the ground at the same time. This is due to the principle of free fall, which states that all objects fall at the same rate, regardless of their mass. This principle was famously demonstrated by Galileo, who dropped two spheres of different masses from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to show that they hit the ground at the same time.

Here are the steps to understand this:

1. When an object is dropped from a height, it is acted upon by gravity alone (ignoring air resistance). The force of gravity attracts all objects towards the center of the earth.

2. The acceleration due to gravity is constant for all objects near the surface of the earth, and it is approximately 9.8 m/s². This means that for every second an object is falling, its speed increases by about 9.8 m/s.

3. This acceleration is independent of the mass of the object. So, whether the object is 1 kg or 50 kg, it will still experience the same acceleration due to gravity.

4. Therefore, if two objects are dropped from the same height at the same time, they will hit the ground at the same time, regardless of their masses.

This is assuming that there is no air resistance. In real life, air resistance can affect the motion of falling objects. For example, a feather and a rock dropped from the same height will not hit the ground at the same time because the feather experiences more air resistance. But for objects like a 1 kg and 50 kg weight, which are likely similar in size and shape, air resistance would not have a significant effect, and they would hit the ground at the same time.