ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

ADDIS ABABA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

APPLIED MODERN PHYSICS(ECEG-2101)

Assignment II

Prepared by:
1. Ermias Mesfin (ATE/3081/11)
2. Estifanos Abrham (ATE/2744/11)
3. Fikremariam Getachew (ATE/1099/11)
4. Kidist Tsegaye (ATE/7152/11)

Submitted to: Instructor Nebiyu Tenaye.

Submitted Date: Monday, April 26/2021.
Person on Scale in Elevator
A person with mass, m, who is located at or near the surface of the Earth will always have some
weight W=mg. When a person stands on a scale, the reading (the number of pounds or newtons)
on the scale is actually the Normal Force that the scale exerts back towards the person to support
the person's weight. (Note that the person and the scale are stationary relative to each other, in
other words they are always in contact with each other, so they always have equal and opposite
action and reaction forces acting between them.)

Things get complicated, though, when the scale and the person experience acceleration. This will
change the contact force (the Normal Force) between the person and the scale. Let’s look at
several cases. We will assume that Up is the positive direction and Down is the negative
direction.
Case 1: No acceleration of elevator

If the acceleration of the elevator is zero, then there are two possible scenarios;
the elevator can be at rest (stationary, zero velocity) or moving with a constant
speed (no acceleration if velocity does not change).
In this case, the action and reaction force pair between the person and the scale
is just the weight. The person pushes down on the scale with a force of
-W=-mg (negative direction) and the scale pushes back up against the man with
a Normal Force of FN = +W = +mg. Because the reading on the scale is the
magnitude of the normal force, the scale will read the true weight when the
elevator is NOT accelerating.

Case 2: going up & speeding up (acceleration a is positive (up))

In this case, the elevator and the person are starting from rest at a lower floor.
The elevator accelerates upward. The inertia of the person would prefer to stay
stationary, so the elevator floor and scale must push up on the person to accelerate
him upward along with the elevator. (The person doesn't sink into the floor when
the elevator accelerates up. The elevator and the scale and the person all move
together.)
The scale therefore has to push upward with extra force on the person to accelerate
the person's mass upward. This results in a greater contact force between the scale
and the person. Therefore, the Normal Force is larger, so the reading on the scale
is a number that is GREATER than the true weight.
Let's consider Newton's 2nd Law (ΣF=ma) acting on the person. The overall
acceleration of the person is upward (with the elevator). So, ma is positive (upward).
The only external forces
acting on the person are the force of gravity acting down (-W=-mg) and the supporting Normal
Force FN that the scale applies upward on the person. So ΣF=ma= -mg+FN . We want to know
FN because that is the number that we read off the scale. FN =mg+ma, which is GREATER than
the true weight.

Case 3: going up & slowing down (acceleration a is negative (down))

In this case, the elevator and the person are initially moving upward at a
constant speed and slowing down to rest at a higher floor. The acceleration
of the elevator is downward (opposite to the upward motion, which causes
a reduction of the velocity). The inertia of the person would prefer to keep
moving upward at a constant speed, so the elevator floor and scale
effectively drop out a little bit from underneath the person as the elevator
slows down.

The person doesn't float upward, because again the elevator and the person
move together, but the contact force between the person and the scale is
reduced. The scale therefore has to push upward with less force

on the person to support the person's weight. Therefore, the Normal Force is smaller, so the
reading on the scale is a number that is LESS than the true weight.

Let's consider Newton's 2nd Law (ΣF=ma) acting on the person. The overall acceleration of the
person is downward (with the elevator). So, ma is negative (downward). The only external forces
acting on the person are the force of gravity acting down (-W=-mg) and the supporting Normal
Force FN that the scale applies upward on the person. So ΣF= -ma= -mg+FN . We want to know
FN because that is the number that we read off the scale. FN =mg - ma, which is LESS than the
true weight.

Case 4: going down & slowing down (acceleration a is positive (up))

In this case, the elevator and the person are initially moving downward at a
constant speed and then slow to rest at a lower floor. The elevator accelerates
upward (opposite direction to negative/downward velocity to reduce velocity
magnitude). The inertia of the person would prefer to keep moving downward at
the constant speed, so the elevator floor and scale must push up on the person to
accelerate him upward, slowing him down. (The person doesn't sink into the floor
here either. Elevator and scale and person move together.)

The scale therefore has to push upward with extra force on the person to accelerate
the person's mass upward. This results in a greater contact force between the scale
and the person. Therefore, the Normal Force is larger, so the reading on the scale
is a number that is GREATER than the true weight.
Let's consider Newton's 2nd Law (ΣF=ma) acting on the person. The overall acceleration of the
person is upward (with the elevator). So, ma is positive (upward). The only external forces acting
on the person are the force of gravity acting down (-W=-mg) and the supporting Normal Force
FN that the scale applies upward on the person. So ΣF=ma= -mg+FN . (Note that this is the same
equation as we got in case 2.) We want to know FN because that is the number that we read off
the scale. FN =mg+ma, which is GREATER than the true weight.

Case 5: going down & speeding up (acceleration a is negative (down))

In this case, the elevator and the person are initially at rest at a higher floor.
The elevator then speeds up in the downward direction towards a lower floor.
The elevator acceleration of the elevator is negative/downward (increasing
the velocity magnitude in the downward direction). The inertia of the person
would prefer to stay at rest, so the elevator floor and scale effectively drop
out a little bit from underneath the person as the elevator accelerates down.

The person doesn't float upward here also, because again the elevator and the
person move together, but the contact force between the person and the scale is
reduced. The scale therefore has to push upward with less

force on the person to support the person's weight. Therefore, the Normal Force is smaller, so the
reading on the scale is a number that is LESS than the true weight.

Let's consider Newton's 2nd Law (ΣF=ma) acting on the person. The overall acceleration of the
person is downward (with the elevator). So, ma is negative (downward). The only external forces
acting on the person are the force of gravity acting down (-W=-mg) and the supporting Normal
Force FN that the scale applies upward on the person. So ΣF= -ma= -mg+FN . (Note that this is
the same equation that we got for Case 3.) We want to know FN because that is the number that
we read off the scale. FN =mg - ma, which is LESS than the true weight.

Case 6: freefall (a = -g)

If the elevator cable were to break, the whole elevator-scale-person system
would all begin to accelerate downward due to the force of gravity.
All objects in freefall accelerate downward with the same magnitude
(acceleration due to gravity, g). The scale and the person are freefalling
together, so there is NO contact force (Normal Force) between the scale
and the person. (When they are both falling together, there is no way
that the scale can support any of the person's weight.)

Note that this is a special case of downward acceleration, which we

discussed in Case 3 and Case 5. Just as in Cases 3 and 5, the apparent
weight (which is zero when a=-g) is less than the true weight
A pictorial and mathematical summary of apparent weight