
A History of Tug-Of-War Fatalities (2014) - FuNe
https://priceonomics.com/a-history-of-tug-of-war-fatalities/
======
logicallee
>2,300 students ... The rope, provided by Pennsylvania Power and Light Co.,
had been intended for use in heavy construction, and was rated to withstand
13,000 pounds of stress.

What's astounding is that at least in this case simple arithmetic could have
shown it was unsuitable - since 13,000 / 2,300 is just 5.6 pounds - a force
any below-average middle schooler can obviously exert at least briefly (being
well under 10% of their body weight and for reference the weight of less than
two stacked 13-inch Macbook Pro notebooks[1] -- which would weigh 6 pounds. A
gallon of milk weighs 8.6 pounds.) It could have been expected that perhaps
every one of those students would exert it continuously through the whole
contest to say nothing of their maximum extra effort on top of it.

While 13,000 pounds is very strong - a full 6.5 tons - it sounds like a simple
arithmetic check could have saved the disaster mentioned in the write-up. The
lesson - or at least one lesson - is, never feel above a simple calculation.

[1]
[https://s.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/10/dsc0890...](https://s.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/10/dsc08906.jpg)

~~~
tempestn
Technically you'd have to divide the 2300 by two. (1150 students pulling on a
rope attached to an immovable wall exerts the same force on the rope as 1150
students pulling in each direction.) Still, even at 11.2lb per student, it's
obviously easily attainable.

Edit: also not all the students were competing at once. _Still_ , even with
only a few hundred it'd be too close for comfort. For a safety-critical thing
like this you want a healthy margin.

------
cel1ne
Something I learned in climbing: Never ever put your hand or finger in a hook
or loop or similar.

It feels natural to do so, when standing on a ladder for example, but you can
easily lose it.

~~~
Bartweiss
This is a great rule. It's most obvious when avoiding slipknots or knotless
loops, but people should also be aware that you can get into real trouble with
fixed loops - if you fall or are pulled, you don't want to catch your whole
weight on a single joint.

------
pilom
Random bit of information cluttering my brain. When playing tug of war, hold
the rope with your thumbs pointed towards yourself. A trained professional can
usually pull about 0.8-1.0x their body weight that way vs. about .5-.7x with
thumbs away. Looped around a waist and​ the same person can get up to about
1.0-1.5x with cleats on turf. Obviously there is lots of variance for type and
thickness of rope as well as footwear and surface but the general principal
stands, hold the rope thumbs towards yourself. Source: I studied thrown rope
rescues in swift water situations.

~~~
vacri
The article mentions a hand being ripped off because a guy looped the rope
around his... I'm not sure you want to loop it around your waist.

~~~
Someone
I don't think pilom is arguing looping the rope around your hand; he's arguing
to zig-zag the rope a bit so that he force pulling on it tried pulling it
through your fingers (pinkie first), perpendicular to the direction of the
rope, instead of parallel to it, so that it can slide out of your fingers.

I am not sure that works with tug of war ropes, though, as they, given the
forces used, are too thick to allow for that zig-zaggy bend.

I certainly don't see it in photos on [http://www.tug-of-
war.org.uk/towtactics.htm](http://www.tug-of-war.org.uk/towtactics.htm)

~~~
kenbellows
He was referencing this statement from the GP: "Looped around a waist and​ the
same person can get up to about 1.0-1.5x with cleats on turf." Point is, if
tug-of-war players have been known to lose hands because the rope was wrapped
around them, do you really want to see what happens when you wrap it around
your waist? Maybe it's safer because your body is much thicker than your
wrist, but is that really an experiment you want to run?

~~~
fr0sty
> do you really want to see what happens when you wrap it around your waist?

The last player on each end can safely wrap the rope around themselves if they
like. The rope behind them is slack, so the only tension on the rope is the
tension they put on it themselves. Where people get into trouble is when they
are somewhere in the middle where there is (significant)tension being applied
to their section of rope by people on either side.

~~~
pilom
This is exactly what I was referencing, in the wikipedia page you can see a
1904 olympic competition where the anchor man has safely wrapped the rope
partially around his waist:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tug_of_war#/media/File:1904_tu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tug_of_war#/media/File:1904_tug_of_war.jpg)

------
scott_s
The xkcd What If? on tug-of-war is also interesting: [https://what-
if.xkcd.com/127/](https://what-if.xkcd.com/127/)

------
Animats
The Caterpillar version: [1]

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS9D1VqBcmI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS9D1VqBcmI)

------
throwaywgsid
A footnote of history, but fraternities were once known for intense
competition and a yearly tug of war between houses was common. Part of the
history of tug of war I guess?

Anyways, my school is one of the few left which still honors the tradition
[http://huskiesifc.org/the_site/?page_id=45](http://huskiesifc.org/the_site/?page_id=45)

The fraternities train like hell for months, it's the real deal.

If you want to see one hell of a tug of war look up "NIU tugs" on youtube.

The really old pictures show it was traditional done over stream so the losers
get soaked. Now it's done on dry ground but it's still just as serious. The
ropes and other equipment we used likely dated back to the 60's or earlier.
The rope was so huge...Maybe 5 inches... It was definitely made for boat
anchors

~~~
sillysaurus3
NIU tugs:
[https://youtu.be/vQ3OPHeSOB0?t=66](https://youtu.be/vQ3OPHeSOB0?t=66)

------
dang
Discussed at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7786159](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7786159).

