Do Heavier Objects Fall Faster Than Lighter Objects?

Do heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects?  The answer is no.  An object falls to the ground due to the force of gravity (Earth's) acting on it.  The force of gravity is set up by the mass of the Earth, so unless you can change the mass of the Earth, the force of gravity remains the same for all objects.  This is an easily testable question.

Take two objects and drop them at the same time from the same height.  Observe which hits the ground first.  In the absence of outside forces, both objects, regardless of mass or weight, strike the ground at exactly the same time.  Easy, right?  Okay, then why does this misconception exist?

The key words above are "in the absence of outside forces".  If I take a hammer and a feather and drop them from my roof at the same time, it is very clear that the hammer strikes the ground first, well before the feather hits the ground.  In this example, there is an outside force, mainly air resistance.  The force of gravity pulling the two objects down is the same, but there is a greater frictional force (air resistance) pushing the feather back up.  Therefore, the feather takes much longer to strike the ground.

If you place the hammer and feather in a vacuum (a sealed tube with all of the air pumped out) and tip the vacuum upside down, gravity is the only force acting on the objects and they fall at exactly the same rate and hit the bottom of the vacuum tube at the same time.  

I encourage you to check out the YouTube video of this experiment on the Moon.  The Moon lacks an atmosphere and is essentially a vacuum.