I mostly agree, but a nice flat surface would rotate/rock/wave [1] like a sheet of paper. When it's horizontal it will go slowly, but when it's vertical it will go faster than a person. I'm not sure about the average.
Note: This is a nice experiment for ~12 year old students that are learning to measure things in the laboratory. Just get two sheets of paper and make a ball with one of them, and measure the time when they fall from a fixed height.
The time of the ball of paper will have a nice distribution. You can probably measure the time 5 times and have a good idea of the average and dispersion. Moreover, most of the dispersion in the time is due to the problems to start and stop the stopwatch, and perhaps some problems to release the ball.
The flat sheet will dance randomly while falling, and the time will be very inconsistent. I don't remember the details, but you should repeat the experiment like 20 times to get an idea of the distribution. The average changes, but the dispersion is a lot higher an impossible to avoid.
[1] I'm not sure which is the correct word in English.
I'm putting this paper experiment in my list of things to do with my nephew when he's a bit older. Neat idea, thanks!
About the correct word: I have no idea what the best word is, but the way you wrote it certainly brought images to my mind of various ways I've seen falling debris act. I honestly wonder if using the "best word" would have been less useful to my comprehension - but I'm in general a big fan of the word1/word2/.../wordN way of describing multi-faceted/ambiguous/complex statements.
Note: This is a nice experiment for ~12 year old students that are learning to measure things in the laboratory. Just get two sheets of paper and make a ball with one of them, and measure the time when they fall from a fixed height.
The time of the ball of paper will have a nice distribution. You can probably measure the time 5 times and have a good idea of the average and dispersion. Moreover, most of the dispersion in the time is due to the problems to start and stop the stopwatch, and perhaps some problems to release the ball.
The flat sheet will dance randomly while falling, and the time will be very inconsistent. I don't remember the details, but you should repeat the experiment like 20 times to get an idea of the distribution. The average changes, but the dispersion is a lot higher an impossible to avoid.
[1] I'm not sure which is the correct word in English.