On the Motion of Broken Ropes-II

Abstract

There are many works of handling ropes on board. And it is very dangerous to handle ropes when they are stretched tightly, because if they are to be cut, they fly rapidly towards the other point where the rope has been tied and are apt to cause the serious disaster. But the motions of these ropes have not thoroughly clarified yet. We studied the phenomena using high speed photography. The camera can catch the motions every 2.5ms and we arranged the mirror to be able to get the phenomena in the vertical plane as well as in the horizontal one. The summary of the results are as follows: (1) Each area, which is to be drawn connecting maximum horizontal deviation of a flying rope, has a particular character defined by its twist. (2) Deviation, from where the rope is originally fastened, does not depend on the length of rope. (3) Relation between the shape of flying rope and its speed is clarified. (4) Flying speed of a broken rope depends on its potential energy and can be estimated by its tension given prior to the snap.