Question

You are part of a research team in the deepest jungles of South America. At one point, the team has to cross a 20-m-wide gorge by stringing a rope across it and then crossing hand over hand while hanging from the rope. After someone has managed to hook the rope on a rock on the other side of the gorge, a relatively new member of the team ties the near end of the rope to a tree in such a way that the rope is very tight. A more experienced member makes the neophyte untie the rope and retie it so that there is some slack. Why? If the rope can exert a tension force of 3500 N without breaking and t

Answer 1

heaviest member of the group has a mass of 110 kg, how much slack do you need? Is the tension on the rope greater when a person is hanging near one side of the gorge or in the middle? Assume that the rope doesn't stretch much when under tension.

Answer 2

I know that this is a statics problem so the net force is equal to 0.