As I was browsing youtube I came across the BBC video "Brian Cox visits the world's biggest vacuum chamber - Human Universe: Episode 4 Preview - BBC Two"
He drops a bowling ball and a feather in a vacuum chamber and observes them hitting the ground at the same time. He then says: "The reason the bowling ball and the feather are falling together is because they are not falling, they are standing still, there is no force acting on them at all..."
This doesn't make any sense to me. I was under the impression and have always been taught that the gravitational force $\vec{F_g}=m\vec{g}$ is the force that "causes" objects to fall.
In addition, if there was no external force acting on the feather and the bowling ball then according to Newtons first law the object would remain in a state of rest (or uniform motion). Since the ball and the feather are being accelerated there must be a force acting on them.
What is going on here? Did he make a mistake or is my understanding of physics even worse than I though?