Question

Twenty people participate in a tug-of-war. The two teams of ten people are so evenly matched that neither team wins. After the game, they notice that a car is stuck in the mud. They attach the tug-of-war rope to the bumper of the car, and all the people pull on the rope. The heavy car has just moved a couple of decimeters when the rope breaks. Why it did not break when the same twenty people pulled on it in a tug-of-war?

Short answer

The rope breaks because it couldn’t support the tension that was created by the twenty people pulling the car.

Step-by-step solution

Tension on the rope.

Tension force is defined as the force that is transmitted by a rope, string, or wire when pulled by forces acting from opposite sides. The pulling force is directed along the length of the wire, pulling energy evenly onto the bodies at the ends.

When twenty people participated in a tug-of-war:

In the first case, in which twenty people participated in a tug of war the tension was created by ten people pulling on one side and ten people pulling on the other side.

When twenty people pulled the car with the rope:

In the second case, however, twenty people pulled on one side until the rope broke which means that the tension generated twice as big compared to the first case.