What primarily causes free fall?

Free fall is primarily caused by gravity, which is the force of attraction between two masses. When an object is in free fall, it is only influenced by this gravitational force, with no other forces acting on it, such as air resistance or friction. This means that the object accelerates downwards at a constant rate, which on Earth is approximately 9.81 m/s².

In a vacuum, where air resistance is absent, all objects, regardless of mass, will fall at the same rate due to gravity. Thus, the primary reason for the phenomenon of free fall is that gravity pulls objects towards the center of the Earth, enabling them to accelerate downward until they hit the ground or another surface.

While forces such as friction and air resistance can affect the motion of falling objects when they are present, they do not cause free fall. Instead, they usually oppose the motion and can reduce the acceleration of an object compared to the acceleration due to gravity alone. Magnetism, on the other hand, involves magnetic forces acting between charged particles and does not contribute to free fall under normal circumstances. Therefore, gravity is the fundamental factor that defines free fall.