In the distant future, an immense tower has been built at Earth\'s north pole; t
ID: 1607116 • Letter: I
Question
In the distant future, an immense tower has been built at Earth's north pole; the tower has a height = 320 km. Tourists who wish to visit space may ride an elevator to the top of the tower where they can don a space suit and sit on top of the tower at an altitude of 320 km above the north pole. As shown in the figure (which is not drawn to scale), one space visitor is enjoying the view from the top of the tower; at the same time, another space visitor is riding a space capsule which is orbiting Earth in a polar orbit at the same altitude of 320 km (in the figure, the capsule is traveling at high speed in a counterclockwise orbit following the dotted line). The space visitor in the capsule finds that she can float freely in the capsule during her orbits, without making contact with any of the capsule walls. By a strange coincidence, both of these space visitors have the same mass. Which of the two space visitors has the greatest weight?
A- the visitor on the tower B- the visitor in the capsule C- The two space visitors have the same weight. Not to Scale Not to ScaleExplanation / Answer
Both have same mass and they are at same height at the top so their actual weight will be same
but their apparent weight will be different
as space visitor in the capsule do not touch the wall of capsule it means centripetal force at that point is equal to the weight and his apparent weight is zero
So visitor on the tower would have more apparent weight.