Question

In a spy movie, the hero, James, stands on a scale that is positioned horizontally on the floor. It registers his weight as 810 N . Unknown to our hero, the floor is actually a trap door, and when the door suddenly disappears, James and the scale fall at the acceleration of gravity, down towards an unknown fate. As James falls, he looks at the scale to see his weight. What does he see

Answer 1

His weight would be zero on the scale i.e he is weightless at that instance.

Step-by-step explanation:

weight = mg

where m is the mass of the object, and g is the acceleration of gravity.

⇒ 810 = mg

During free fall, the weight of an object can be determined by:

W = mg - ma (provided that acceleration of gravity is greater than acceleration of the object)

where a is the acceleration of the object.

But since James fall at the acceleration of gravity, then:

g = a

mg = ma = 810 N

So that;

W = 810 - 810

= 0 N

Therefore though the weight of James is 810 N, but the scale reads 0 N. this condition is referred to as weightlessness.