Playing tug of war in space, who wins

[Ithuestad]

what would happen if I played a game of tug in space? I'm considering the gravity to be zero and the mass of the rope is negligible and there is no friction. My mass is larger but the force with which I'm pulling is less than that of my lighter yet stronger opponent.

I'm envisioning that we both move towards the center and no one wins, or is the person with the larger mass always going to win. I can't quite wrap my mind around all the possible scenarios.

 

[Dale]

The person with the larger mass always wins. The force is irrelevant.

 

[jbriggs444]

what would happen if I played a game of tug in space? I'm considering the gravity to be zero and the mass of the rope is negligible and there is no friction. My mass is larger but the force with which I'm pulling is less than that of my lighter yet stronger opponent.

Newton's third law says that the force with which you are pulling your opponent must be the same as the force with which he is pulling you.

There is a center of mass that is between you. Its distance from each of you is proportional to your mass ratio. If you each start at rest and pull on each other via a massless rope or similar arrangement, you will both wind up at that point simultaneously. No amount of pushing, pulling, kicking, wiggling or flapping of arms can change that.

 

[bcrelling]

If you consider winning as who is moved the least by their opponent, then the player with the greatest mass wins.

However if you consider winning- who reaches the centre of the rope first, it's possible the lighter player could win if he had a high pulling power to mass ratio.

 

[PJC01]

I can provide a theoretical response to this scenario based on the laws of physics. In a zero gravity environment with negligible mass and no friction present, the game of tug of war would result in both individuals moving towards the center, as you have correctly envisioned. This is because in the absence of external forces, objects in motion will continue to move in a straight line at a constant speed.

However, if we were to consider the concept of inertia, the person with the larger mass would have a greater resistance to change in motion and thus would have a slight advantage in this scenario. This means that they would be able to pull the rope with a slightly greater force and thus move towards the center at a slower rate compared to their lighter opponent.

It is important to note that this is a simplified scenario and in reality, there are many other factors that could affect the outcome of the game. For example, if the individuals were wearing suits with thrusters or had some sort of propulsion system, they could use that to their advantage and potentially change the direction of their movement.

Overall, in a zero gravity environment with negligible mass and no friction, the game of tug of war would likely result in both individuals moving towards the center, with the person with the larger mass having a slight advantage due to their greater resistance to change in motion. However, in reality, there are many other variables that could affect the outcome and it is difficult to predict the exact result without taking all of these factors into account.