Class 11 Physics simulations · Laws of Motion

Apparent weight in an elevator

Accelerate an elevator and see how the floor’s normal reaction changes a weighing-scale reading.

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What to notice

A scale measures the normal force. During ideal free fall it reads zero even though gravity still acts.

Key relation

N − mg = ma

Try this

Try the free-fall preset, then reveal the free-body diagram.

What you can change

• Passenger mass: 40 to 100 kg
• Elevator acceleration (up +): -9.8 to 9.8 m/s²

More in Laws of Motion

• Angle of repose
• Atwood machine
• Banked road turn
• Two connected blocks
• Forces and friction
• Recoil of a gun
• Impulse: catching an egg
• Block on an incline
• A load held by two ropes

See all Class 11 Physics simulations or every Physica simulation.