Newton's law, normal force, acceleration

[jehan4141]

A 75 kg person is standing on a bathroom scale in an elevator. The scale is calibrated to read in Newtons. The elevator is accelerating upward at 135 m/s². What is the reading on the scale? What apparent value of g does the man give?



The Free Body Diagram
Normal on the man, upward
Weight mg of the man, downward



My Attempt/Logic
The only two forces acting on the man are normal force and weight.

F_N - mg = ma
f_N = mg + ma, where N is the reading on the scale.

F_N = (75)(9.8) + (75)(135)
F_N = 10860 N

The solution reads 8.5x10² N? Am I doing something wrong? This problem seems very basic, but I am obviously missing something.

 

[Doc Al]

Are you sure the acceleration wasn't 1.35 m/s^2. 135 m/s^2 is not very realistic.

 

[jehan4141]

That is exactly how it is printed. I simply copied and pasted. You may also see it here: http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/ph101_2006/learning_guide_ph101_2006.pdf on page 15

 

[jehan4141]

It is much closer with 1.35 m/s2, However it is still a little off? I am not sure if there is even anything wrong with the way I am doing it :( it seems correct?

 

[Doc Al]

It is much closer with 1.35 m/s2, However it is still a little off?

If you take g = 10 m/s^2 it's pretty close. (But it definitely says 135 m/s^2.)

I am not sure if there is even anything wrong with the way I am doing it :( it seems correct?

Your work is perfectly fine, and given the data, so is your answer.

 

[jehan4141]

Thank you so much! It's very surprising that the solution could be wrong because if you read the preface of the packet it says that this learning guide has been edited many times over the course of many decades!