A rope made of a natural material (wool/silk/cotton/…) consists of a whole of fibres, each of which is finite.
The rope itself can be woven indefinitely. So you have an infinitely long rope that consists of finite fibers.
So my question is: where does the rope get its strength from?
Answer
Dear Jeroen,
By forcefully bringing the fibers together, longitudinal forces in one fiber (ie forces in the direction of the fiber) can be introduced into an adjacent fiber thanks to the friction principle. This is why the fibers are always twisted (twisted). This twisting even happens on different scales. Hypothetical example: 100 fibers are twisted together to form one strand. 10 wires are twisted together into one wire. 5 wires are twisted together again to form the final rope.
If you wouldn’t twist the fibers and just lay them parallel to each other, there is hardly any contact between the fibers. There are therefore limited frictional forces and longitudinal forces will hardly or even not be transferred from one fiber to another: you can pull the rope apart.
Kind regards,
Pieter Schevenels
Answered by
dr. ir. Pieter Schevenels
sound acoustics engineering
Agoralaan University Campus Building D BE-3590 Diepenbeek
http://www.uhasselt.be/
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