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Tension is the pulling or stretching force transmitted axially along an object such as a string, rope, chain, rod, truss member, or other object, so as to stretch or pull apart the object. In terms of force, it is the opposite of compression. Tension might also be described as the action-reaction pair of forces acting at each end of an object.
It is therefore convenient to collect many of these terms in the Maxwell stress tensor, and to use tensor arithmetic to find the answer to the problem at hand. In the relativistic formulation of electromagnetism, the nine components of the Maxwell stress tensor appear, negated, as components of the electromagnetic stress–energy tensor , which ...
An equation for the acceleration can be derived by analyzing forces. Assuming a massless, inextensible string and an ideal massless pulley, the only forces to consider are: tension force (T), and the weight of the two masses (W 1 and W 2). To find an acceleration, consider the forces affecting each individual mass.
For example, a free body diagram of a block sitting upon an inclined plane can illustrate the combination of gravitational force, "normal" force, friction, and string tension. [note 4] Newton's second law is sometimes presented as a definition of force, i.e., a force is that which exists when an inertial observer sees a body accelerating.
A small holding force exerted on one side can carry a much larger loading force on the other side; this is the principle by which a capstan-type device operates. A holding capstan is a ratchet device that can turn only in one direction; once a load is pulled into place in that direction, it can be held with a much smaller force.
In physics and engineering, a free body diagram (FBD; also called a force diagram) [1] is a graphical illustration used to visualize the applied forces, moments, and resulting reactions on a free body in a given condition. It depicts a body or connected bodies with all the applied forces and moments, and reactions, which act on the body(ies).
The normal force, for example, is responsible for the structural integrity of tables and floors as well as being the force that responds whenever an external force pushes on a solid object. An example of the normal force in action is the impact force on an object crashing into an immobile surface. [4]: ch.12 [5]
Contact mechanics is the study of the deformation of solids that touch each other at one or more points. [1] [2] A central distinction in contact mechanics is between stresses acting perpendicular to the contacting bodies' surfaces (known as normal stress) and frictional stresses acting tangentially between the surfaces (shear stress).