When you’re in an elevator, why does the feeling of falling or rising only last for a second before it just feels like you’re standing in a vibrating room?
In: Physics
The feeling you experience is the elevator accelerating from a standstill to it’s normal speed.
Once it reaches a constant speed you don’t feel a force anymore because you only experience a force from acceleration.
The inertia of your own mass’s is the cause. When the doors are open, you and the steel box are both stationary with respect to each and the building.
Doors close and the box begins to move, but you are not rigidly attached to the box. So when going down, there is an infinitesimal moment when the box has started moving but you having. You basically are falling by a teeny tiny amount.
When going up, the box starts moving before you do, so the rising floor pushes up at your feet.
As said, this happens only for a brief moment before your body catches up and is now moving at the exact same speed as the box. You and the box are stationary with respect to each other, but in motion in relation to the building.
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