Tension on Strings and

Ropes
Tension is the force exerted by a rope, string, cable, or similar object on one
or more objects.
Anything pulled, hung, supported, or swung from a rope, string, cable, etc. is
subject to the force of tension.
Like all forces, tension can accelerate objects or cause them to deform.
• Being able to calculate tension is an important skill not just for physics
students but also for engineers and architects, who, to build safe buildings,
must know whether the tension on a given rope or cable can withstand the
strain caused by the weight of the object before yielding and breaking.

• See Step 1 to learn how to calculate tension in several physical systems.

 Determining Tension On a Single Strand

Define the forces on either end of the strand. The tension in a given strand of string or rope is a result
of the forces pulling on the rope from either end.
Force = mass × acceleration. Assuming the rope is stretched tightly, any change in acceleration or
mass in objects the rope is supporting will cause a change in tension in the rope.

Tension , T = (m × g) + (m × a)
where "g" is the acceleration due to gravity of any objects the rope is supporting and "a" is any other
acceleration on any objects the rope is supporting.
For the purposes of most physics problems, we assume ideal strings - in other words, that our rope,
cable, etc. is thin, massless, and can't be stretched or broken.
 Example?
Let's consider a system where a weight hangs from a wooden beam via a
single rope (see picture). Neither the weight nor the rope are moving - the
entire system is at rest. Because of this, we know that, for the weight to be
held in equilibrium, the tension force must equal the force of gravity on the
weight.

In other words, Tension (Ft) = Force of gravity (Fg) = m × g.

• Assuming a 10 kg weight, then, the tension force is 10 kg × 9.8 m/s2 = 98 Newtons.
Solution
 Account for acceleration after defining the
forces.
• Gravity isn't the only force that can affect the tension in a rope - so can
any force related to acceleration of an object the rope is attached to.
• If, for instance, a suspended object is being accelerated by a force on the
rope or cable, the acceleration force (mass × acceleration) is added to the
tension caused by the weight of the object.
 Example
• Let's say that, in our example of the 10 kg weight suspended by a rope,
that, instead of being fixed to a wooden beam, the rope is actually being
used to pull the weight upwards at an acceleration of 1 m/s2. In this case,
we must account for the acceleration on the weight as well as the force of
gravity by solving as follows:
• Ft = Fg + m × a
• Ft = 98 + 10 kg × 1 m/s2
• Ft = 108 Newtons.
• Use multiple strands to support a hanging object. Finally, let's consider an
object hanging from a "Y-shaped" system of ropes - two ropes are attached to
the ceiling, which meet at a central point from which a weight hangs by a third
rope. The tension in the third rope is obvious - it's simply tension resulting
from the gravitational force, or m(g). The tensions in the other two ropes are
different and must add up to equal the gravitational force in the upward
vertical direction and to equal zero in either horizontal direction, assuming the
system is at rest. The tension in the ropes is affected both by the mass of the
hanging weight and by the angle at which each rope meets the ceiling. [
• 8]Let's say in our Y-shaped system that the bottom weight has a mass of 10 kg and that the two upper
ropes meet the ceiling at 30 degrees and 60 degrees respectively. If we want to find the tension in
each of the upper ropes, we'll need to consider each tension's vertical and horizontal components.
Nonetheless, in this example, the two ropes happens to be perpendicular to each other, making it easy
for us to calculate according to the definitions of trigonometric functions as follows:
• The ratio between T1 or T2 and T = m(g) is equal to the sine of the angle between each supporting rope and the
ceiling. For T1, sin(30) = 0.5, while for T2, sin(60) = 0.87
• Multiply the tension in the lower rope (T = mg) by the sine of each angle to find T 1 and T2.
• T1 = .5 × m(g) = .5 × 10(9.8) = 49 Newtons.
• T2 = .87 × m(g) = .87 × 10(9.8) = 85.26 Newtons.