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Chapter 4: Problem 1

A person is standing on a bathroom scale. Which of the following is not a force exerted on the scale: a contact force due to the floor, a contact force due to the person's feet, the weight of the person, the weight of the scale?

Short Answer

Expert verified
Answer: The weight of the person.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding the forces acting on the scale

In this scenario, there are four forces mentioned. Let's try to understand each force's role: 1) contact force due to the floor: This is the normal force exerted by the floor on the scale. 2) contact force due to the person's feet: This is the force exerted by the person's feet on the scale, which is equal to the weight of the person. 3) weight of the person: This is the force due to the person's weight. It's directed towards the center of the Earth and is responsible for the scale readout. 4) weight of the scale: This is the force due to the scale's weight, and it's also directed towards the center of the Earth.
02

Identifying the force not acting on the scale

Let's analyze which force doesn't act on the scale. 1) The contact force due to the floor is acting on the scale to balance out the pressure from the weight above it. 2) The contact force due to the person's feet is acting on the scale as it's the same as the weight of the person. 3) Weight of the person is NOT exerted on the scale itself since the force due to the person's feet already represents the person's weight; thus, this force is redundant. 4) Weight of the scale is exerted on the scale as it's the force exerted by Earth acting on the scale.
03

Answer

Based on our analysis, "the weight of the person" is not a force exerted on the scale because the contact force due to the person's feet already represents the person's weight.

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