Harry the painter swings year after year from his bosun’s chair. His weight is 500 N and the rope, unknown to him, has a breaking point of 300 N. Why doesn’t the rope break when he is supported as shown at the left? One day, Harry is painting near a flagpole, and, for a change, he ties the free end of the rope to the flagpole instead of to his chair, as shown at the right. Why did Harry end up taking his vacation early?
Answer : Step 1) When normally the pulley is tied to a weight it gets balanced with tension force in the string , So here , As in fig(1) as both end of the rope are tied to bosun’s chair , so the tension in the string is balanced on both side of the string i.e 250 N its not crossing the breaking point of the string which balance the weight produced by harry 500N =250N + 250N Weight of the harry = Tension in string produced. FHarry F string
