#1
#1 out of 10.00%
4h ago
Do you weigh more when an elevator goes up or when it comes down?
- Upward acceleration in an elevator makes you feel heavier as the floor pushes up to speed you up.
- When the elevator decelerates at the top, your weight on the scale drops due to less upward push.
- Your body’s mass and gravity don’t change in an elevator; only the upward push does.
- The force you feel as weight is the normal force from the floor, not gravity itself.
- In orbit, astronauts feel weightless because the craft and astronauts are in continuous free fall.
- Gravity remains strong on Earth; the change in weight comes from acceleration, not a change in gravity.
- Experts connect this effect to Einstein's equivalence principle, linking gravity and acceleration.
- Typical elevator accelerations can be about 0.1 g, enough to noticeably alter scale readings.
- The article clarifies that 'weight' can mean several related ideas, including mass and gravitational force.
- The article highlights how the scale reading is the measured normal force, not gravity.
- The explanation provides practical examples and connects to everyday experiences, like stepping on a scale in an elevator.
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