- #1
Bad Monkey
- 29
- 0
Consider the following scenario.
There is a train engine on a cliff above a plain. Imagine the engine is directly on the cliff edge. On the plain below, there is a carriage. Both tracks are flat and horizontal.
The engine is connected directly to the carriage by a cable. This cable when taut obviously is oriented at some angle theta below horizontal.
The engine now tries to pull the carriage. Its pulling force tensions the cable. Obviously the carriage will move. The engine applies force H.
The engine is applying only a horizontal force. The carriage can only move horizontally. I appreciate that, in the cable, there will be this horizontal force, plus a vertical element necessary to make up the 'hypotenuse of the triangle'. So there will be a resultant lift force on the carriage, and an opposite downward force on the engine (which the cliff plateau opposes), given by H*tan(theta). Correct?
The cable must therefore have a higher total tension than is actually being applied by the engine.
Question: how do we refer do this force multiplication? Is it a form of leverage?
P.S. The best real world example I can think of is pushing horizontally on the pole of a tent. It is relatively easy to pull out the peg/anchor. Just trying to figure out the language to cover this.
There is a train engine on a cliff above a plain. Imagine the engine is directly on the cliff edge. On the plain below, there is a carriage. Both tracks are flat and horizontal.
The engine is connected directly to the carriage by a cable. This cable when taut obviously is oriented at some angle theta below horizontal.
The engine now tries to pull the carriage. Its pulling force tensions the cable. Obviously the carriage will move. The engine applies force H.
The engine is applying only a horizontal force. The carriage can only move horizontally. I appreciate that, in the cable, there will be this horizontal force, plus a vertical element necessary to make up the 'hypotenuse of the triangle'. So there will be a resultant lift force on the carriage, and an opposite downward force on the engine (which the cliff plateau opposes), given by H*tan(theta). Correct?
The cable must therefore have a higher total tension than is actually being applied by the engine.
Question: how do we refer do this force multiplication? Is it a form of leverage?
P.S. The best real world example I can think of is pushing horizontally on the pole of a tent. It is relatively easy to pull out the peg/anchor. Just trying to figure out the language to cover this.