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Tension
Tension is a force that acts through a stretched rope/string/cable.
- When two teams pull on a rope, it is under tension.
- When something is squashed, it comes under forces of compression e.g. the pillars of a building are under compression.
- Each rope experiences only one tension value along the rope.
- The direction of tension depends on object considered or referred to.
Consider a box being hung from the ceiling by a rope:
The box experiences an upwards force from the tension.
The ceiling experiences a downwards force from the tension.
The magnitudes of the forces on the box and the ceiling are the same. This is the tension in the rope.
A pulley can change the direction of the string or rope. However, the magnitude of the tensions at both ends will still be equal (assuming the pulley is smooth / frictionless).
Here the tension force on A and B will have the same magnitude.
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