Re: Can this be true?

[Maurice Barnhill <mvb@UDEL.EDU>]

He forgot to say massless, therefore the tension is highest at the
highest point and the string breaks there.  If there is more than one
highest point, it breaks simultaneously at each of them.  Moreover,
there must be a highest point (or two highest points) if the hanging
mass is not accelerating.

Carl C. Gaither wrote:
> Hello--
>
> While working on the books I came across the following quote.  It seems
> to me to be quite an interesting statement.  Does anyone know if this
> can actually be a true statement?  The statement is:
>
> If a piece of string were exactly the same all along, however thin it
> was, however great the weight hung on it, and however much you jerked
> it, it could not break--it wouldn't know where to break.
>         The Collected Works of Paul Valéry
>         Valéry, Paul
>         Volume 14
>         Analects (p. 322)
>
> --
> Carl C. Gaither & Alma E. Cavazos-Gaither (Authors)
> Statistically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations
> Physically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations on Physics and Astronomy
> Mathematically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations
> Practically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations on Engineering
> Medically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations on Dentistry, Medicine,
> and Nursing
> Scientifically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations
> http://www.angelfire.com/tx/StatBook/index.html

--
Maurice Barnhill, mvb@udel.edu
http://www.physics.udel.edu/~barnhill/
Physics Dept., University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716