Question

A lift and its passengers with a total mass of 500 kg accelerates upwards at 2ms^-2 as shown.

Assume that g = 10 ms^-2.

Answer 1

The tension in the cable that makes the elevator move can be found by Newton's second law:

$$ma=T-mg,\\ T=m(a+g)=500\cdot12=6000\text{ N}.$$