The parachutist has a mass of 75 kg. What is the weight of the parachutist?
3 Answers
Explanation:
Note: I would like to point out that if the parachutist is in free-fall, her apparent weight is zero. But her true weight--her gravitational attraction experienced from the earth--is as follows.
We're asked to find the weight of an object, with its mass known.
This is pretty straightforward, and we use the equation
where
-
#w# is the magnitude of the weight, in newtons,#"N"# -
#m# is the mass, in#"kg"# (given as#75# #"kg"# ) -
#g# is the acceleration due to gravity,#9.81# #"m/s"^2#
Plugging in known values, we have
rounded to
As long as she is in free fall, she's weightless.
Explanation:
Gravity will pull every mass down with a force of
where
Weight is the force that a mass may exert on a surface (or on a rope when hanging). When you're standing on a solid floor, gravity makes you push down on the floor, and if the floor is strong enough, it will push back with the same force you keep you in equilibrium.
While a parachutist is in real free fall, there is nothing to push or pull on, so she's weightless.
Explanation:
I have a feeling we might be missing some information here, but if the parachutist is at rest on the surface of the earth, her weight is equal to the force of gravity acting upon her. Therefore, we have:
#W=F_g=mg#
#=(75kg)(9.8m/s^2)#
#=735N#
That might seem like an unreasonable answer at first, but hopefully it can serve to remind us that mass and weight are not the same quantity!