Tuesday, June 11, 2013

A person is standing on a scale in a elevator accelerating downward. compare the reading on the scale to the person's true weight.Multiple Choice:...

The safe answer is C. See below why it could also be D:


The best way to think of weight is this: weight is the measurement of resistance of a given mass to falling.


On the earth, everything that has mass wants to fall. We call that gravity. When you stand on the ground, the ground prevents you from falling. If you stand on a scale that is on the ground, the gound stops the scale from falling, and the scale stops you from falling. It also measures how much it stops you from falling, and that is called your weight.


Now stand on a scale in an elevator. If the elevator is stationary, then the scale is prevented from falling by the floor of the elevator and the scale prevents you from falling and measures your "true" (at rest) weight. But, if the elevator begins to fall (accelerates downward) and you continue to stand on the scale, you will weigh less and less (as the elevator floor, you and the scale are falling at the same rate) until the whole system is in free fall at which point you, the elevator and the scale will weigh nothing at all.


Of course, if you should hit the ground at some point, you will all weigh a great deal more than you did when you started.

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