Why would a bathroom scale tell you that you've gained weight if you were standing on one in an upwardly accelerating elevator?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Consider the scenario of standing on a bathroom scale inside an elevator that is accelerating upward. The key idea is apparent weight, which is the normal force the scale exerts on you.
Option 1: 'The scale exerts an upward force greater than usual to move you upward.' This captures the core physics: when the elevator accelerates upward, you need extra upward force to accelerate your mass upward, so the scale must push up harder on your feet. The increased normal force makes the scale read a higher value.
Option 2: 'Your weight increases to resist the upward pushing force of the scale.' In physics terms, your true weight due to gravity does not change with elevator motion; what changes is the apparent weight. The statement anthropomorphizes weight and misattributes the increase to a resistance by your body, which is not the correct mechanism.
Option 3: 'The further from Earth you get, the stronger its gravity gets.' This is incorrect for everyday elevator scenarios near Earth's surface. Gravity does not appreciably increase just by moving a few meters away from Earth’s surface; gravitational force remains essentially constant over such small vertical distances.
Option 4: 'Acceleration causes scales to malfunction.' This is not accurate as a general rule. The scale isn’t malfunctioning; it’s responding to the actual forces acting on you in the accelerating frame, yielding the higher reading as explained by the dynamics of non-inertial frames.

ASTR-1-45046-F25 Lecture: Orbits

Why would a bathroom scale tell you that you've gained weight if you were standing on one in an upwardly accelerating elevator?

查看解析

登录即可查看完整答案

类似问题

You are standing on a bathroom scale in an elevator. In which of these situations must the scale read the same as when the elevator is at rest?

You are standing on a bathroom scale in an elevator. In which of these situations must the scale read the same as when the elevator is at rest?

A Rocket launches with an acceleration of 34 m/s2 upward. What is the apparent weight of a 75 kg astronaut aboard this rocket?

Consider a person in an airplane at the top of a looping, circular trajectory, like the KH-135 "Vomit Comet". At this point, the person's ...

A Monash College student of mass70 kg standing in an elevator briefly experiences a constant downward vertical speed of 2 m/s as he moves from level 6 to level 2. What is apparent weight of the student at this moment?

A Monash College student of mass70 kg standing in an elevator briefly experiences a constant upward vertical speed of 2 m/s as he moves from level 2 to level 6. What is apparent weight of the student at this moment?

A Monash College student of mass70 kg standing in an elevator briefly experiences a constant upward vertical speed of 2 m/s as he moves from level 2 to level 6. What is apparent weight of the student at this moment?

更多留学生实用工具

考试浏览器助手

风格化写作助手

论文查重助手

文献引用助手

课堂转译助手

课堂笔记助手

Quiz搜索助手

学校历年真题

智能刷题助手

智能匹配练习

希望你的学习变得更简单