Question

Why do we feel uneasy when the ferris wheel moves downwards?

Answer 1

Ferris wheel is also known as giant wheel. It revolves around its central axis, in a vertical plane. At every point of the revolution, the three forces acting on a person (with respect to the wheel) are normal reaction, pseudo force and its weight. Note, we neglect the effect of centripetal force as the revolution speed of the wheel is very less.

Complete step by step answer:
When the wheel is moving in an upward direction, the pseudo force acts downwards. Due to this reason, the net normal reaction on us increases.

Also, when we are moving downwards with the wheel, the normal reaction of the wheel on us decreases proportionally as that time, the pseudo force starts to act upwards. This is the force due to which we feel uneasy. Due to this reason, we feel that we are getting lighter and we are about to fly or fall off the wheel.

Additional Information: Similar case is with the motion of lift. When lift is accelerated upward or downward, we feel the same type of effect on us. The reason is pseudo force. But there is a difference between the cases. When lift is moving with constant velocity, we don’t experience any force. But when the wheel moves with constant velocity, we still have force onto us which is centripetal force.

Note: We can’t feel if our weight is increased or not because it always remains constant. The only thing that affects us is the normal reaction acting on us. Similar case is with lift. When it goes up with some acceleration, we feel that the ground is pushing us to squeeze us.