After looking at this question:
Don't heavier objects actually fall faster because they exert their own gravity?
A thought occurred to me that due to the increased gravitational pull of the heavier object, will that cause more air particles to be attracted, thus increasing friction?
If so, will it then -in any circumstance- affect the falling rate of the heavier object to the point that a lighter object may fall faster than it?
If you consider that gravity is weak compared to the electromagnetic force because
$G \approx 6.67 \times 10^{-11} Nm^2 kg^{-2} $
and
$k_e \approx 8,987 \times10^9 N m^2 C^{-2} $
it would require very small distances in order for the gravitational force to be effective, but at this distances the electromagnetic force would be several times higher, repelling the air molecules (bouncing them off). Even if some of the mass is accreted , it would be several orders of magnitude smaller than the object's mass, besides, acceleration at the surface of the earth is independent of the objects mass because
$ \frac{GMm}{r^2} = ma$
so its acceleration does not depend on $m$.
If you work through the numbers, you will find that all of the air on earth has a mass that is less than 1 millionth the mass of the earth. You can't get more than a tiny fraction of that air close to your falling object, so the effects of wind and other disturbances would FAR outweigh any effects due to gravity, because G is sooooooo small.
