If you have two workers say standing on a scaffolding, their are downward forces from the weight of the workers along with the weight of the scaffold, and upward forces from tension suspending the scaffolding in place. The opposite forces add to zero and thus the scaffolding remains at rest.My question has to do with what would occur if more/less workers were on the scaffolding. It appears to me that the scaffolding would always remain at rest. Would there always be a ΣF=0 regardless of the amount of workers? As the decreases in weight from removing a worker would also cause the tension force to be weaker? And vice versa if there were more workers?I
You are correct so long as the scaffolding is not allowed to move. I.e. the cables suspending it are locked and not unwinding from their spools as more workers get on. More weight added would necessarily increase the tension in this type of case. However, if, when another worker got on and the tension could not increase for what ever reason, a downward acceleration would take place that is proportional to the worker's weight. Hope that clears things up.
