In: Physics
A curious person decides to do an experiment in their apartment building. They take their bathroom scale into the elevator on the 15th floor of the highrise they live in. When the elevator is stationary, they step on the scale and it reads 532 N, as expected since this is the person's weight. When the elevator starts moving, the person looks at the scale and it reads 420 N. The combined mass of the person and the elevator is 795 kg.
(a) Explain why the reading on the scale is less than the person's weight.
(b) What is the elevator's acceleration (magnitude and direction) when the scale reads 420 N.
(c) In the next part of the experiment, the person chooses a different floor to travel to and then the scale reads 670 N. Did the person choose to go to a higher floor or a lower one? And what is the acceleration of the elevator?
(d) Using the calculations you made in parts (b) and (c), find the tension in the elevator cable when the scale read 420 N and 670 N.
(e) At one point during the experiment, the person looks at the scale and it reads 0 N. Explain how this is possible and what the person should do about it.