A 79 kg person sits on a 3.7 kg chair. Each leg of the chair makes contact with the floor in a circle that is 1.3 cm in diameter. Determine the pressure exerted on the floor by each leg of the chair, assuming all weight is evenly distributed.

Question

Physics

Marley Stuart

25 March, 10:36

A 79 kg person sits on a 3.7 kg chair. Each leg of the chair makes contact with the floor in a circle that is 1.3 cm in diameter. Determine the pressure exerted on the floor by each leg of the chair, assuming all weight is evenly distributed.

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Orion · Answer 1

I'll assume that the chair has four legs.

Since the chair weights 3.7 kg by itself, it will weigh (79+3.7) = 82.7 kg with the person sitting on it. And each of the chair's legs will take about (82.7/4) = 20.675 kg.

Each leg touches the floor in a circle with 1.3cm diameter. The area of that circle is about (3.14 * (1.3/2) ^2) = 1.327 cm^2.

Pressure is measured by force per area. So, the pressure from each leg is about 20.675kg / 1.327cm^2. That simplifies to 15.58 kg/cm^2.