Predicting the motion of particles in a quiescent liquid is a key problem in fluid mechanics that has a bearing on wide range of applications in multiphase flow modeling. A significant part of the paper is devoted to an evaluation of gravity, drag, added mass and history force on the motion of high-Reynolds number particles. In this study, the motion of metallic and plastic particles of 5 and 10 mm diameters in liquid media during their sedimentation toward a plate was studied experimentally. Variation of the sphere size and density allow measurements at Reynolds numbers, based on terminal velocity, between 1000 and 95000. The comparison is made by solving the equation of particle motion based on Lagrangian approach. The results showed if gravity is sufficient to describe the particle trajectory in a gas, this is not the case in a liquid where drag and added mass force are important but not sufficient: the history force is shown to be non-negligible. For the small particles, the history force has a (t-t)-1/2 behavior as predicted by Odar and Hamilton and as observed in numerical simulation. Finally, comparison of the dynamics of particles of different diameters for the same density shows that the diameter has a significant role in treatment of particle sedimentation and that large particles show transitory oscillations in velocity profile.