Earth’s gravity vs a metallic ball 🌍

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]What would happen if you dropped a ball from different layers of Earth's atmosphere? Level one, Mount Everest.

[00:00:03]You drop the ball from the highest mountain on Earth. At first, everything feels normal and the ball hits the ground in just a few minutes. Level two, commercial airplane. Now, you drop the ball from 12 km above Earth. The air falls much faster, but it still takes several minutes to reach the ground.

[00:00:15]Level three, stratosphere. Now, you are 50 km above Earth. The sky starts looking almost black. The ball takes nearly half an hour to finally reach the ground. Level four, Kármán line. Now, you are at the [music] edge of space, 100 km above Earth. There is almost no air here. The ball falls incredibly fast at first, but Earth's atmosphere slowly starts slowing it down. It may take around an hour to land. Level five, low Earth orbit. Now, now you are so high that the ball doesn't fall straight down anymore. It starts moving around Earth instead. And if it gets enough sideways speed, it might never come down at all.