My students found some of the problems that I set involving tension on the cable of an accelerating elevator rather difficult. I have always wondered what wuld happen if I sent them over to the school admin block to use the elevator with some bathroom scales. I tried it, the reading wobbles a bit but it wasn’t very convincing. One participant on a recent workshop I co-led suggested using a force meter in the elevator. I tried it today. Vernier dual range force sensor with 300g attached and logged the force as I traveled upwards in the elevator. The sensor detected an increased reading while the elevator accelerated upwards and a decrease when it accelerated downwards.
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