How can I use this Force vs Time graph....

Question

to find the top speed, mass, and distance traveled by the elevator it represents?

Link to the image: https://codepen.io/KatlynRocks/pen/gOwWNXE

Answer 1

When the force is steady (~ 365 N) assume that the elevator is stationary. From that and g, you can find the mass of the elevator. For the times that the force increases or decreases, you can consider the elevator to be accelerating, due to the next excess (or deficiency) of force. It seems likely that the elevator has risen some distance over 2 seconds, stopped there for 5 seconds, and then gone back down. The net force will give you acceleration, the duration will give you the max speed, and one of your kinematics equations should give you the distances. Good luck!