27. In a tug of war between Sam and Maddy, each pullson the rope of a force of 2

Question

27. In a tug of war between Sam and Maddy, each pullson the rope of a force of 250N. what is the tension of therope? If both remain motionless, what horizontal force does eachexert against the ground? Explain. I believe that each would be equal to 250N, but I'm not surehow to prove that the tension would be equal to 250N...I'm not evensure what concept this is covering. Is it vectors? I askbecause it was in Hewitt's Conceptual Physics book in chapter 5, onvectors and vector forces. I am having trouble graspingvectors. 27. In a tug of war between Sam and Maddy, each pullson the rope of a force of 250N. what is the tension of therope? If both remain motionless, what horizontal force does eachexert against the ground? Explain. I believe that each would be equal to 250N, but I'm not surehow to prove that the tension would be equal to 250N...I'm not evensure what concept this is covering. Is it vectors? I askbecause it was in Hewitt's Conceptual Physics book in chapter 5, onvectors and vector forces. I am having trouble graspingvectors. I believe that each would be equal to 250N, but I'm not surehow to prove that the tension would be equal to 250N...I'm not evensure what concept this is covering. Is it vectors? I askbecause it was in Hewitt's Conceptual Physics book in chapter 5, onvectors and vector forces. I am having trouble graspingvectors.

Explanation / Answer

You could think of these forces as vectors, since the addition ofthese two force vectors would yield zero. One vector is 250Nin one direction, and the other is 250 N in the other direction,yielding a net force of 0 N. It's important to remember that forces come in pairs: every timeyou apply a force in one direction, something else has to apply aforce in the opposite direction. This is why the forceexerted on the ground is 250 N. It's common for people at first to think that the tension in therope would be 500 N, since each person is pulling with 250 N. However, forces come in pairs, and those two forces are merelybeing each other's partner. Imagine if I pulled on a ropeattached to a wall with 250 N. What would be the tension inthe rope? 250 N, of course. The wall is also pulling onthe rope with 250 N, which is rather strange to think of atfirst. But, that's the way it is. So, in the case of the two people, the rope undergoes 250 N oftension because each person's force supplies one of the members ofthe force pair.

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