Determining the forces acting on a system

AI Thread Summary
The discussion focuses on understanding the forces in a system involving tension and gravity. The gravity vector is acknowledged, but confusion arises regarding the presence of three tension forces. One participant questions the role of friction between the hands and the rope, suggesting it may not relate directly to tension. Additionally, there is uncertainty about why two tension forces are present at the bottom pulley instead of one, with clarification needed on how tension operates in this context. The explanation emphasizes that tension remains consistent throughout a frictionless rope, aligning with Newton's third law.
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Homework Statement


Explain why the force diagram is as shown:

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[h2]Homework Equations[/h2][h2]The Attempt at a Solution[/h2]
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For the system, the gravity vector makes sense. However, I don not understand exactly why there are three tension forces. First of all, to me, it would seem that the first force is the force due to friction between the person's hands and the rope. I do not see what the force has to do with tension. Second of all, why are there two tension forces where the bottom pulley is? Shouldn't there only be one? How come there are two? I doon't really understand how tension works, so it is confusing me.
 

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The hands versus the rope: think Newton's third law.

For the second question, consider that the tension along a rope must the the same (assuming the pulleys are frictionless), otherwise it would move
 
Kindly see the attached pdf. My attempt to solve it, is in it. I'm wondering if my solution is right. My idea is this: At any point of time, the ball may be assumed to be at an incline which is at an angle of θ(kindly see both the pics in the pdf file). The value of θ will continuously change and so will the value of friction. I'm not able to figure out, why my solution is wrong, if it is wrong .
TL;DR Summary: I came across this question from a Sri Lankan A-level textbook. Question - An ice cube with a length of 10 cm is immersed in water at 0 °C. An observer observes the ice cube from the water, and it seems to be 7.75 cm long. If the refractive index of water is 4/3, find the height of the ice cube immersed in the water. I could not understand how the apparent height of the ice cube in the water depends on the height of the ice cube immersed in the water. Does anyone have an...

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