Question

Suppose you are riding on a roller coaster at an amusement park. Discuss how your apparent weight would change as the car accelerates up the track and then coasts back down. What would your apparent weight be if the car were momentarily in free fall?

Answer 1

Your apparent weight on a roller coaster changes based on the direction and magnitude of acceleration. When the car accelerates up the track, you feel heavier, and when it coasts back down, you feel lighter. During free fall, your apparent weight would be zero, and you would feel weightless.

Step-by-step explanation:

When riding on a roller coaster, your apparent weight changes due to the acceleration experienced during different parts of the ride. As the car accelerates up the track, you would feel heavier than your normal weight due to the upward acceleration. This is because you are experiencing two forces - the downward force of gravity and the upward force from the acceleration of the car. As the car coasts back down, you would feel lighter than your normal weight because the acceleration is in the same direction as gravity, reducing the effective gravitational force.

If the car were momentarily in free fall, such as when it goes over a steep drop, your apparent weight would be zero. This is because both you and the car are accelerating downward at the same rate due to gravity. In this situation, you would feel weightless.