Objects falling toward Earth are never truly in free-fall in the real world because:

1. Free-fall in the strict sense means gravity is the only force acting. 2. In practice something else is always present. 3. In the real world, when objects fall downward toward Earth, they are never truly in free-fall because there is always some upward force from the air acting on the object. 4. That upward force is air resistance, or drag. 5. Only in a vacuum does the strict free-fall condition hold. _Source: OpenStax College Physics for AP(R) Courses 2e (CC BY 4.0), Ch 4 'Dynamics: Force and Newton's Laws of Motion', sections 4.1-4.8_