What is 1.62 m/s²?

1.62 m/s² is how fast something speeds up when it falls near Earth’s surface.

Imagine you're playing a game where every second, your toy car gets a little faster and faster as it zooms down the ramp, that's like what happens with gravity.

If you drop a ball from your hand, it doesn't just whoosh to the floor right away. It starts slowly, then goes quicker and quicker, that’s acceleration, and 1.62 m/s² is the rate at which things speed up when they fall near Earth.

Think about climbing stairs. Each step you take gets you higher, just like each second of falling makes your ball go faster. If you could climb one stair every second, and with each step you went a little faster, that’s kind of what 1.62 m/s² feels like for a falling object.

So next time you drop something, imagine it's on a fun ride down the stairs, getting faster every second!