How Does a Tug-of-War Accident Sever Somebody’s Arms?
I recently learned that the game of tug-of-war can sever arms when the rope snaps. How is this possible? What does that look like? What physical mechanism makes this possible? Wouldn’t everybody just fall backwards?
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You know how much it can hurt if you snap a big rubber band against your skin? Ramp that up 1000x or more and it does a lot more than hurt.
When a tug of war rope snaps it has the energy of 24+ people pulling stored in it, and the weight of that big rope. So imagine a 2 inch thick rubber band, being pulled back by 2 dozen people, and they let it go. Together that’s enough energy and mass to kill people *if* it hits them.
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