[masraum]

Originally Posted by Bill Verburg

There are 2 parts to the resolution of this problem
the static case(before upwards acceleration) and the dynamic case (during the upwards acceleration)

assumption; this is taking place near the surface of the earth in a total vacuum chamber.

since we only care about the forces during the acceleration we add the acceleration due to earths gravity to the imposed acceleration
net A = 9.8 + 2.42 = 12.22m/s²
from bottom to top force in Newtons at each link
F = .094 * 12.2 = 1.1468N
F = 2 * .094 * 12.2 = 2.2936N
F = 3 * .094 * 12.2 = 3.4404N
F = 4 * .094 * 12.2 = 4.5872N
F = 5 * .094 * 12.2 = 5.734N

ok, so, wouldn't that be the gross F in the upward direction, and the gross force in the downward direction would be .92, 1.84, ...

So then wouldn't the net force be the mass * the acc which in this case is actually 2.42m/s^2? The Force of gravity down minus the Normal Force (the chain links holding the bottom links up) should cancel each other out and the net force would be the upward acceleration which is only 2.42?