In the distant future, an immense tower has been built at Earth\'s north pole; t
ID: 1782039 • Letter: I
Question
In the distant future, an immense tower has been built at Earth's north pole; the tower has a height h = 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 vissitor in the capsule
C. the two vistors have the same weight
Not to ScaleExplanation / Answer
C. the two vistors have the same weight
Though it seems like visitor on tower A has more weight because visitor in capsule is floating but actually both hav esame weight .This is because visitor in capsule is experiencing a centrifugal force due to rotation which is cancelling the gravitational force,henmce he is feeling weightlessness.