A person stands on a scale in an elevator and has a weight of 850 Newtons. If the

reading on the scale changes to 500 Newtons, what is occurring?

Elevator is going down.

Explanation:

Given that,

Weight of the person standing in the elevator, w = 850 N

mg = 850 N

The reading changes to W = 500 N

The W can be expressed as

W = (g±a) m N

Since the mass is constant, the value of W can be lowered only by the '-a' value.

The acceleration 'a' is negative for a person who is accelerating towards gravity.

Hence, the elevator is going down.