When an object is in free fall, what factor is primarily ignored in its motion?

When an object is in free fall, the primary factor that is ignored is air resistance. Free fall describes the motion of an object only under the influence of gravitational force, without any other forces acting upon it. In a vacuum, where there is no air, objects fall freely towards the Earth at the same rate regardless of their mass, as gravity acts uniformly on them.

In the context of free fall, air resistance (also known as drag) can significantly impact an object’s motion when it is falling through the atmosphere. Air resistance opposes the motion of the object and can cause it to fall at a slower rate than predicted by ideal models which assume a vacuum. Therefore, when discussing free fall in a physics sense, we focus purely on gravitational attraction, neglecting the effects of air resistance for simplification and understanding of the basic principles of motion. This is essential in teaching the fundamental behavior of objects under gravity without additional complicating factors that could obscure the underlying physics concepts.