A person is standing in an elevator that is moving downward and slowing down. Is the magnitude of the normal force on the person
1 answer:
the magnitude of the normal force is greater than the magnitude of the weight of the person
Explanation:
As the elevator moves down, there are two forces acting on the person:
- The weight of the person, , where m is the mass of the person and g the acceleration due to gravity, acting downward
- The normal reaction exerted by the floor of the lift on the person, N, acting upward
This means that Newton's second law can be written as
(1)
where we chose upward as positive direction, and a is the acceleration of the elevator.
Here we know that the elevator is moving downward and it is slowing down: this means that the velocity is negative (upward), and the acceleration is in the opposite direction (upward), so the acceleration is positive.
Eq.(1) can be rewritten as
and as we said that , this means that
So the magnitude of the normal force is greater than the magnitude of the weight of the person.
Learn more about forces and weight:
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