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You are in a glass elevator traveling upward with constant speed. You lift a box from the elevator floor up to your waist. The elevator moves a distance d during this time. From your point of view, you have done work = mgh where h = the height of your waist from the elevator floor. But a stationary observer outside the elevator sees the box move through a distance h + d since the elevator move a distance d while you lifted it. The stationary observer claims the work done is mg(h+d). Is this a contradiction or not? What is the source of the extra mgd work claimed by the stationary observer? |
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