Question

What is the weight of a person in free fall? Could you please show your work?

Answer 1

zero (weightless)

Step-by-step explanation:

when a person free fall under the effect of gravity person feels weightless.

to understand this condition we take example of person sitting in a lift and lift is moving down with acceleration 'a' which is shown in the figure below,

in this condition there will be pseudo acc acting on the person

as,

`R=m* g_(effective)\\ g_(effective) \ becomes \ (a-g)\\`

so now,

`R=m* (a-g)`

so in free fall 'a' becomes equal to 'g'

force acting on the body becomes zero i.e. person feels weightless.