A falling object which ceases to accelerate due to the forces of drag and gravity being equal reaches what rate of descent (speed)?
Terminal velocity increases, so does the drag force acting on it, which also depends on the substance it is passing through (for example air or water). At some speed, the drag or force of resistance will equal the gravitational pull on the object (buoyancy is considered below). At this point the object ceases to accelerate and continues falling at a constant speed called the terminal velocity (also called settling velocity). An object moving downward faster than the terminal velocity (for example because it was thrown downwards, it fell from a thinner part of the atmosphere, or it changed shape) will slow down
Gravity drag is due to gravity losses and atmospheric drag. Consider the simplified case of a vehicle with constant mass accelerating vertically with a constant thrust per unit mass "a" in a gravitational field of strength "g". The actual acceleration of the craft is "a"-"g" and it is using delta-v at a rate of "a" per unit time. Over a time "t" the change in speed of the spacecraft is ("a"-"g")"t", whereas the delta-v expended is "at". The gravity drag is the difference between these figures, which is "gt". As a proportion of delta-v, the gravity drag is "g"/"a". A very large