Home > categories > Hardware > Wire > Tension in wire decrease or increase?
Question:

Tension in wire decrease or increase?

This is the typical Physics problem with the wire and boom connected to a wall with a mass hanging on the end of the wire.Does the tension in the wire increase or decrease when the wire is connected higher on the wall (meaning the angle between the wire and the boom increases).

Answer:

Assuming the boom is free to pivot at the wall, and a massless wire, the tension in the wire decreases as the attachment point is moved further up the wall away from the boom. There is a constant vertical force (the weight of the boom and the mass attached to its end) that is a constant component of the tension in the wire. The tension must increase to maintain this constant upward force as the wire approaches the pivot point, because the vertical component of tension is the tension multiplied by the sine of the angle between the wire and the boom. As the angle approaches zero, the tension required to support the boom approaches infinity. Conversely, as you move the end of the wire higher up on the wall, the tension decreases, approaching the combined weight of the boom and the suspended mass as the wire approaches being parallel with the wall. So imagine a sign attached to the side of a skyscraper at street level supported by a wire extending to the top of the building. There will be almost no horizontal component to the tension in the wire and the vertical component will just be the sum of the weight of the wire, the boom, and the attached mass.

Share to: