An 1150kg elevator moving down speeds up at a rate of 3.5m/s. what is the tension in the supporting cables?

The tension force in the supporting cables is 7245N

Explanation:

There are two forces acting on the elevator: the force of gravity pointing down (+) with magnitude (elevator mass) x (gravitational acceleration), and the tension force of the cable pointing up (-) with an unknown magnitude F. The net force is the sum of these forces:

We are given the resulting acceleration along with the mass, i.e., we know the net force, allowing us to solve for F:

The tension force F in the supporting cables is 7245N