As soon as a bowling ball rolls off the edge of a table its horizontal component of velocity

a) increases.
b) remains constant
c) decreases.

B) Remains constant

Explanation:

The motion of the ball is the motion of a projectile, which consists of two separate motions:

- A horizontal motion with constant velocity, since there are no forces acting along the horizontal direction (if we neglect air resistance)

- A vertical motion with constant acceleration, due to the presence of the force of gravity (pointing downward), that accelerates the ball towards the ground with acceleration g=9.8 m/s^2.

We are only interested in the horizontal motion of the ball: we said that there are no forces acting along the horizontal direction, therefore the horizontal component of the the velocity of the ball is constant.

air exerts forces on falling objects near earth’s surface.

explanation:

the term 'free falls' refer to object that are falling towards the earth, in a situation in which gravity is the only force acting on the object.

for an object in free fall, the acceleration is constant (g, the gravitational acceleration), and so the velocity of the object constantly increases.

for objects near earth's surface, there is always another force acting on the object: the resistance due to the air. this force is opposed to the direction of fall of the object, and it is proportional to the velocity of the object, so as the object falls down, this force increases up to a point when it balances the force of gravity, and the object continues its motion at constant velocity (called terminal velocity). since in this case gravity is not the only force acting on the object, we are not in a situation of free fall.