For example, I want to figure out the impact force on a person inside a free falling elevator.
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>For example, I want to figure out the impact force on a person inside a free falling elevator.
If an object is in free fall then it is in free fall. Whether there are other objects in free fall in or around the first object doesn’t matter.
Unfortunately it doesn’t quite apply to your specific scenario though, because an elevator will never be in free fall and so neither will its occupants. It will always be slowed down significantly by its various frictional braking- and security features and by the air cushion underneath it. By **how much** depends on the model, materials, shape and condition of the elevator, the air pressure within the building, the distance traveled by the dropping elevator, the total weight (or precisely the *density* of the whole elevator cabin including occupants), on how air-tight the elevator shaft is, the temperature within the elevator shaft and probably a number of other different things I’ve forgotten.
What I’m saying here is that you’re tackling a very tricky engineering problem and won’t just be able to model an elevator as a box dropping from a plane.
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