The amusement park ride shown above takes riders straight up a tall tower and then releases an apparatus holding seats. This apparatus free-falls back to Earth and is stopped safely right above the ground. Which of the following indicates the magnitude of the gravitational force exerted on a rider of mass m on the way up and on the way down?

In both way up and way down the magnitude is equal to mg.

Way up  and Way down is equal to mg both indicate the magnitude of the gravitational force exerted on a rider of mass m on the way up and on the way down. On both way up and way down the magnitude of the gravitational force are the same because mass of the body does not change with height. So in both cases the magnitude of the gravitational force is F= mg so we can conclude that both way up and way down the magnitude is equal to each other.

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