Cables between pylons always dip but surely a lot of money could be saved if they were pulled taut.
In: Engineering
Ropes and cables can only transmit forces along their length. To hold their own weight (plus ice, rain etc.) they need some vertical component (i.e. slack). Even then the forces along the rope/cable and its attachment point are much greater than the weight.
You could probably pull down the walls of your room by mounting a really tight and strong rope from one wall to the other and then loading it with your own body weight.
For pylons there is probably a sweet spot between ground clearance, cable length and cable stress. You could pull them tighter (to require less cable and have more ground clearance) but then you’d need stronger cables and pylons. You could allow more slack (to allow for weaker and cheaper cables and pylons) but then you’d have less ground clearance.
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