Question 5.2: How Much Do You Weigh in an Elevator? You have most likely b...
How Much Do You Weigh in an Elevator?
You have most likely been in an elevator that accelerates upward as it moves toward a higher floor. In this case, you feel heavier. In fact, if you are standing on a bathroom scale at the time, the scale measures a force having a magnitude that is greater than your weight. Therefore, you have tactile and measured evidence that leads you to believe you are heavier in this situation. Are you heavier?
No; your weight is unchanged. Your experiences are due to your being in a noninertial reference frame. To provide the acceleration upward, the floor or scale must exert on your feet an upward force that is greater in magnitude than your weight. It is this greater force you feel, which you interpret as feeling heavier. The scale reads the force with which it pushes up on you, not your weight (unless you are at rest), and so its reading increases. We will examine the effect of the acceleration of an elevator on apparent weight in Example 5.8.