A person in a stationary, non-moving elevator drops a coin and it reaches the floor 0.6 seconds later. Now he repeats the experiment with the elevator moving. Would the coin reach the floor in less time same time or more time, if it were dropped when the elevator was: traveling down at a constant speed or accelerating downward?
it would reach at the same time. if the elevator was traveling down at contact speed, gravity will be another force added to it. slowing down the acceleration because gravity is pulling on it
To determine whether the time it takes for the coin to reach the floor would be less, the same, or more when the elevator is moving, we need to consider two scenarios: when the elevator is traveling down at a constant speed, and when it is accelerating downward.
1. Elevator traveling down at a constant speed:
In this case, the elevator does not experience any change in its speed. When the coin is dropped, it will have the same initial velocity as the elevator. As a result, the coin will appear to be stationary in relation to the elevator. The time it takes for the coin to reach the floor will remain the same as when the elevator was stationary since there is no change in the relative velocity of the coin to the elevator.
2. Elevator accelerating downward:
In this scenario, the elevator is moving with an increasing speed in the downward direction. When the coin is dropped, it initially shares the velocity of the elevator at that particular moment. However, due to Earth's gravity, the coin will start to accelerate downward as soon as it is released. This means that the coin will experience two downward accelerations: the acceleration due to gravity and the additional acceleration caused by the elevator moving downward.
Since the coin experiences an additional acceleration in the downward direction when the elevator is accelerating downward, it will reach the floor faster compared to the previous scenarios. Consequently, the coin will take less time to reach the floor when the elevator is accelerating downward.
In summary, when the elevator is traveling down at a constant speed, the time it takes for the coin to reach the floor remains the same. On the other hand, when the elevator is accelerating downward, the coin will reach the floor in less time since it experiences an additional acceleration along with the gravitational acceleration.