Question

A person stands on a weighing machine kept on the floor of an elevator, if the elevator moves down with a constant acceleration, the apparent weight of the person

• A. is less than their true weight
• B. is equal to their true weight
• C. is more than their true weight
• D. can be more or less than their true weight

Answer 1

The correct option is A is less than their true weight

When a person stand on an elevator moving downwards with acceleration $a$, he will experience a downward gravitational force equal to $mg$ and an upward pseudo force equal to $ma$.

We know that a weighing machine measuees the net downward force

$\Rightarrow F_{netdownwards}=mg-ma$

This means the net downward force exerted by the person on the weighing machine will decrease by an amount $ma$ and the apparent weight of the person will become less than his true weight

Hence correct answer is option $A$