A man of weight W is standing on a lift which is moving upward with an acceleration a. The apparent wieght of the man is

Question

anonymous · Answer

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thats how the FBD for the man will be. 
now, Fn is responsible for man's acceleration a upwards. which means that Fn will have to be greater than W, his real weight. (or else u'll find the man sinking down, while the lift accelerates upwards)
so this gives us Fn > W
u know that the weight we measure using a weighing machine is actually the measure of the normal force it exerts on us, right? so the apparent weight = Fn
hence, apparent weight > real weight W
u got it?