Emergency elevator safety feature calculations

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around calculations related to emergency elevator safety features, focusing on the application of physics principles such as constant acceleration and the work-energy theorem.

Discussion Character

  • Mixed

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the use of force equations and constant acceleration formulas, questioning the complexity of the original approach. There is mention of using SUVAT equations and the relationship between force and energy methods.

Discussion Status

Some participants have offered guidance on simplifying the problem and highlighted the equivalence of different approaches. There is acknowledgment of a misunderstanding regarding the inclusion of mass in the equations, but no consensus has been reached on the best method to proceed.

Contextual Notes

Participants are navigating constraints such as specific instructions against using energy methods and the need to clarify the application of force equations in the context of the problem.

Achintya
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Homework Statement
The cable of a 4,000 kg elevator snaps when the elevator is at rest on the first floor so that the bottom is a distance d = 12.0 m. A safety device claps the guide rails so that a constant frictional force of 10,000 opposes the motion of the elevator.(g=10 m/s^2)

a) What is the speed of the elevator just before it hits the ground?
Relevant Equations
PLEASE DON'T SOLVE THIS USING CONSERVATION OF ENERGY METHOD...IF POSSIBLE SOLVE THIS USING THE FORCE VELOCITY RELATION(F=vdv/dx)
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Did you forget the mass in ##F_y = mv_y\frac{dv_y}{dy}##?

It seems you're slightly overcomplicating it too. It's a constant acceleration question, so you can do it in one line of SUVAT!

Also, you say not to solve it using 'energy' methods, but the relation you've derived from considering forces is (save for that missing factor of ##m##) a statement of the work energy theorem. Hopefully you can see that energy approaches and forces approaches are often completely equivalent!
 
etotheipi said:
Did you forget the mass in ##F_y = mv_y\frac{dv_y}{dy}##?

It seems you're slightly overcomplicating it too. It's a constant acceleration question, so you can do it in one line of SUVAT!

Also, you say not to solve it using 'energy' methods, but the relation you've derived from considering forces is (save for that missing factor of ##m##) a statement of the work energy theorem. Hopefully you can see that energy approaches and forces approaches are often equivalent!
thank a lot sir ...i just didn't realize that thing... i know it was silly.
 
etotheipi said:
It seems you're slightly overcomplicating it too. It's a constant acceleration question, so you can do it in one line of SUVAT!
There's an instruction to use F=vdv/dx (which, as you say, should be mvdv/dx).
 
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