In 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright proposed the construction of a mile-high building in Chicago. Suppose the building had been constructed. Ignoring Earth's rotation, find the change in your weight if you were to ride an elevator from the street level, where you weigh 600 N, to the top of the building.

Question

Let R be the radius of the earth. When you go a distance h upwards, your new distance from the center of the earth becomes R + h. The weight decreases by an inverse-square factor 
[R/(R+h)]^2

Look up R (It's about 3960 miles). That would make the factor (3960/3961)^2. The ground-level weight gets multiplied by that factor

Thanks a lot!!! I got it :)

john · Answer

At what altitude above Earth's surface would the gravitational acceleration be 3.0 m/s2?

johnny · Answer

In 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright proposed the construction of a mile-high building in Chicago. Suppose the building had been constructed. Ignoring Earth's rotation, find the change in your weight if you were to ride an elevator from the street level, where you weigh 760 N, to the top of the building.