Four acrobats of mass 61.0 kg, 68.0 kg, 62.0 kg, and 55.0 kg form a human tower, with each acrobat standing on the shoulders of another acrobat. The 61.0-kg acrobat is at the bottom of the tower.
If the area of each of the 61.0-kg acrobat's shoes is 370 cm2, what average pressure (not including atmospheric pressure) does the column of acrobats exert on the floor?
I already found the normal force to be 2410.5, which is correct.
To find the average pressure exerted by the column of acrobats on the floor, we can use the formula:
Pressure = Force/Area.
In this case, the force we need to calculate is the total weight of all the acrobats, since weight is the force exerted due to gravitational pull.
To find the weight, we can use the formula:
Weight = mass x gravity.
The mass given for each acrobat is 61.0 kg, 68.0 kg, 62.0 kg, and 55.0 kg. Since they are standing on top of one another, we can add up their masses to find the total mass of the column.
Total mass = 61.0 kg + 68.0 kg + 62.0 kg + 55.0 kg.
Now we can calculate the total weight of the column by multiplying the total mass by the acceleration due to gravity, which is approximately 9.8 m/s^2.
Total weight = (61.0 kg + 68.0 kg + 62.0 kg + 55.0 kg) x 9.8 m/s^2.
Once you find the total weight, you already know the area of the acrobat's shoes (370 cm^2), which you can convert to square meters (m^2) by dividing by 10,000 (since 1 m^2 = 10,000 cm^2).
Now you can plug the values into the formula for pressure:
Pressure = Total weight / Area.
Calculate the pressure to find the average pressure exerted by the column of acrobats on the floor, not including atmospheric pressure.