Question

a suction cup works by creating a vacuum between the rubber cup and surface its stuck to. if the total area of the rubber cups is 0.01 meters, how much weight can the suction cup support when stuck to the ceiling? assume a perfect vacuum inside the cup, and negelect the mass of the suction cup itself

Answer 1

1.0x10^3 newtons of force 1.0x10^2 kilograms of weight (assuming local gravity of 9.8 m/s^2) I will assume that the external pressure is 1 atmosphere (101325 Pascals) since it wasn't specified in the problem. So let's simply multiply the area of the suction cup by the pressure and see what we get: 101325 P * 0.01 m^2 = 101325 kg/(m*s^2) * 0.01 m^2 = 1013.25 kg*m/s^2 = 1013.25 N So the suction cup can support 1013.25 Newtons of force. Assuming the local gravitational acceleration is 9.8 m/s^2, let's see how many kilograms that is 1013.25 N / 9.8 m/s^2 = 1013.25 kg*m/s^2 / 9.8 m/s^2 = 103.3928571 kg Rounding to 2 significant figures gives 1.0x10^3 newtons, or 1.0x10^2 kilograms.