Potential energy without them needing to supply that energy To a scientist, an elevator is simply a device that increases or decreases a person's
You really do have more potential energy at the top of a building than at the bottom, even if it doesn't feel any different. This is an example of the law of conservation of energy in action. Or a decrease in your potential energy (going down). In the process is (mostly) converted into potential energy, soĬlimbing stairs gives an increase in your potential energy (going up) To get from the ground to the 18thįloor walking up stairs you have to move the weight of your bodyĪgainst the downward-pulling force of gravity. Scientifically, elevators are all about energy. If you wait for the cars to move out of the way, you can often see some of the workings and figure out which bits do what. Photo: A typical, modern, electronically controlled elevator. The day and the reverse at the end of the day. To carry many more people upward than downward at the beginning of The quickest, most efficient way (particularly important in huge,īusy skyscrapers at rush hour). Logic) to ensure large numbers of people are moved up and down in So-called "elevator algorithm" (a sophisticated kind of mathematical
A system of strong metal cables and pulleys running between the cars and the motors.(Some elevators use hydraulic mechanisms instead.) An electric motor that hoists the cars up and down, including aīraking system.One or more cars (metal boxes) that rise up and down.For those of us who are more curious, the key parts of an elevator are: Metal box with doors that close on one floor and then open again onĪnother. Traveling from the lobby to the 18th floor, an elevator is simply a The annoying thing about elevators (if you're trying to understand them) is that their This diagram comes from a historic Otis brochure Illustration by artist Pat Rawling courtesy of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA-MSFC).Īrtwork: With the exception of electronic control systems, the basic mechanism of traction elevators (ones that are pulled up and down by cables) hasn't changed all that much in over a century. On an elevator that could carry materials from the surface of Earth up to geostationary Earth orbit, 35,786km (22,241 miles) up. Photo: How far will the top button take you? All the way to space? NASA is already working Take a closer look at elevators and find out how they work! That's why his invention can rightly beĭescribed as one of the most important machines of all time. Hoisting apparatus," which allowed cities to expand vertically as Otis literally changed the face of theĮarth by developing a machine he humbly called an "improvement in Modern skyscrapers to soar to the clouds: it was the invention, inġ861, of the safe, reliable elevator by a man named Elisha Graves It wasn't justīrilliant building materials such as steel and Or so since space scientists first proposed them-and it's no wonder.īut in their time ordinary office elevators probably seemed almost as radical. Hit the top button on the elevator and prepare yourself for a long ride: in just a few days you'll be waving back from space! Elevators that can zoom upīeyond Earth have certainly captured people's imagination in the decade
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