Atmosphere vanishes?

Question

Suppose you are standing on a weighing scale and all of a sudden the atmosphere vanished. The reading on the scale would
A) Quickly reduce to zero
B) Remain the same
C) Decrease (I selected but was incorrect)
D) Increase
E) None of the above

Answer 1

B) Remain the same. The force of gravity on you (the object being weighed) does not change.

Answer 2

B) Remain the same.

Air pressure at the Earth's surface is approximately 14.5 lbs per square inch. But, this is not the same as weight. Air pressure pushes at you from all directions, not just from above. Air surrounds the platform of the scale you are standing on (if it didn't the surface wouldn't be able to move up and down to register your weight), so if the atmosphere suddenly vanished, the pressure pushing down on the surface you are standing on would disappear, but the exact same amount of pressure pushing up from below the surface you are standing on would also disappear, and the differences would cancel each other out.
.

Answer 3

well if you put a scale in your bathtub, fill it with water, and then put a 10lb rock on the scale it would weigh less than 10lbs yes?

when you drain the water the scale would come up to 10lbs, as the water drained out. the pressure on the rock from its atmoshpere (the water) would help support it.

I would expect that air would do the same thing, only to a lesser degree as air is not nearly as dense as water, but nevertheless an atmosphere that is imposing some forces on objects in contact with it.

Answer 4

The atmosphere has mass, and therefore weight on a planet with gravity. Whether it remains the same or decreases largely depends on the type of scale being used. Some scales are zeroed at the height above sea level that they are being used at, setting zero to be the weight of the atmosphere alone. Removing that would give you a negative score with no other mass on it.

Scales more mechanical in their nature would not be effected.

Answer 5

The reading would increase.

The absence of air pressure makes NO difference on any scale I've ever seen, which is open to the air pressure on both the top and bottom, thus cancelling itself out.

What will make a difference is the lack of buoyant force provided by the fluid air. Since that buoyancy is no longer supporting part of your weight, it must be supported by the scale. The reading increases.

Answer 6

Well, in my opinion it would decrease. Unless you are talking about all the air in the room was vacated, then it would stay the same. If the whole atmosphere dissapeared, from the ground to the sky, I've always believed/ heard that you had 16 lbs/in^2 of air on your head, so you would lose that much weight.
Dunno why that would be wrong.
Guess I'll read more answers and see.

Edit- AHA! Thanks Prof ZikZak and Alladin. That makes sense.
This was a good question.

Answer 7

There's no way it will remain the same because the atmospheric pressure would no longer be exerting force upon you. You would quickly reduce to nothingness. A.

Answer 8

The atmosphere has nothing to dowith the weight of any object on earth.it is the gravity of the earth that is responsible for the weight of any object .on earth.