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Example: Weights in elevators

Now what happens if you weight yourself in an elevator? Suppose the elevator is accelerating with an acceleration of tex2html_wrap_inline641 vertically upward?

This will modify the last example. Now the net force acting on you, which is the force of gravity tex2html_wrap_inline627 plus the force of the scale on you tex2html_wrap_inline629 should no longer be zero. From the second law we have

equation57

The force of gravity is tex2html_wrap_inline647 , so solving for tex2html_wrap_inline629 , we have

equation62

And now the rest of the argument is the same as the previous example. What's the force you exert on the scale, tex2html_wrap_inline633 ? By the third law, that has the same magnitude as tex2html_wrap_inline629 . So the scale registers a weight of m(g+a).

So if the elevator is accelerating upward, the scale weighs more. If the elevator has a downwards acceleration, then you weigh less.

Your mass doesn't change. Just the force that you exert on the scale.



Joshua Deutsch
Wed Jan 7 17:12:17 PST 1998