If a 50 kg of mass are placed on the pan of a spring balance located on a freight elevator and if local gravity acceleration is 9.70 m/s^2 then, when elevator is moving with an upward acceleration of 2.5m/s^2, what will the balance read?

Question

anonymous · Answer

Weight = mass x acceleration
Force = mass x acceleration so work it out as you would force:

50kg * (9.70 + 2.5)m s^-2 = 50kg * 12.2 kg m s^-2 
                                          = I don't have a calculator on me but it's something like 610kgms^-2

yttrium · Answer

i think it should be (9.70-2.5) because it acts away from the local gravity

yttrium · Answer

but still thank you.

anonymous · Answer

The effect of it acting away from local gravity I think would be miniscule as only relatively small distances are covered in a realistic consideration while there is a relatively large (an increase of more than 25%!) increase in acceleration

anonymous · Answer

btw this is a physics question so you might get a better answer there if mine is unsatisfactory/incorrect

yttrium · Answer

yeah but i am taking microanalysis right now so I think that is more considerable

yttrium · Answer

by the way, is physics forum now active? I mean very active like maths?

anonymous · Answer

Relatively... there's seems to a bunch online now so you should get helped quickly :)

anonymous · Answer

I don't know about microanalysis so you'd know better than me!