Apparent Weight. A physics student weighing 600 N stands on a bathroom scale in an elevator. As the elevator starts moving, the scale reads 420 N .
A )Find the magnitude of the acceleration of the elevator.
B ) Find the direction of the acceleration of the elevator.( up or down )
thanks ,,,
The weight is less, so the elevator is falling.
weightapparent= mg + ma were + is up, g= 9.8m/s^2
solve for a.
To find the magnitude of the acceleration of the elevator, you can use the formula for apparent weight:
weight_apparent = weight + ma
In this case, the weight_apparent is given as 420 N, and the weight of the physics student is 600 N. The acceleration of the elevator is represented by "a", which we need to find.
Substituting the given values into the equation, we have:
420 N = 600 N + (m * a)
We know that the weight of an object is given by:
weight = mass * gravitational acceleration
So, the weight of the physics student can be expressed as:
600 N = m * 9.8 m/s^2
From this, you can find the mass (m) of the physics student.
Once you have the mass, you can substitute it back into the equation:
420 N = (mass value) * a
Solving for "a", you'll get the magnitude of the acceleration of the elevator.
To determine the direction of the acceleration (up or down), you can observe that the weight_apparent is less than the weight of the student, indicating that the scale is reading a lower value. This suggests that the elevator is falling, meaning the direction of the acceleration is downward.