As an elevator moves upward and slows down, how is your weight affected?

When an elevator moves upward and begins to slow down, the sensation of weight you experience is affected by the combination of gravitational force acting on your body and the upward acceleration (or deceleration) of the elevator.

In this scenario, as the elevator moves up but decelerates, it means that it is experiencing a downward acceleration while you are still subject to the gravitational force pulling you downwards. This results in a net effective force that you feel internally as your weight.

The concept of apparent weight is key here. Your actual weight, determined by the force of gravity, remains constant. However, the sensation of weight — what we feel as our "weight" — is less than it would be if the elevator were accelerating upwards.

When the elevator slows down while moving upward, it effectively reduces the normal force acting on you, which is what contributes to the feeling of weight. This reduction is felt as a decrease in apparent weight. Consequently, your weight sensation decreases even though your mass and the gravitational force on you remain unchanged.