A History of Tug-of-War Fatalities
priceonomics.com
priceonomics.com
There was one serious injury: the first kid on the left side had his arm broken -- it was bent to a 45 degree angle, but luckily didn't break the skin. Nothing else, though, which was extremely lucky. Someone could easily have lost an eye. Heck, I could have seeing as I was standing right where it snapped.
I remember that the kid was from Mexico and didn't speak English at all. I think he was eight or nine. He was freaking out, and I figured out that he was asking if they would have to remove his arm. His older brother was refusing to translate anything for me, so I had to reassure him in my non-existent Spanish. (I'm Canadian so we learn French, not Spanish)
That was over 20 years ago, but that post sure brought back the memories.
(Or put another way: if two people pull on a rope with 50 pounds of force, the tension is 50 pounds, not 100.)
Or put it this way: when there's 50 pounds of tension, that means that there's fifty pounds of force at one end and fifty pounds of force at the other end. It doesn't matter whether that force comes from an anchor or from someone pulling. Or you could have a pulley with a fifty-pound weight at each end. Or a rope tied to the ceiling with fifty pounds at the other end.
(The simplification here is that the rope mass is negligible. In reality, the tension will vary across the rope's length.)
Fail. It's put me off Tug-of-War. And lets be realistic, it was the intention.
But an enjoyable article none the less.
Our instance: we were the best team all through highschool because we were well coordinated. One of our last games we faced a decently weighted team, but their anchor was neither strong nor heavy. Flag dropped, we heaved and charged back. Their anchor had wrapped the rope around him and twisted it (basically knotting himself in. We caught them off guard and dragged him between his team mates. He was really cut up from being dragged between people's legs (and everyone wears cleats).
It's fun, but it really punishes anyone who's stupid. Our teacher used to walk around and whack anyone who wrapped their hands in the rope due to people getting broken hands.
It's the exact same as the idiot who goes on field when people are throwing javelins, discus and shot put.
Not exactly what I wanted to see first in the morning over my cornflakes...
In fact, the only fatalities listed in this article were 2 boys in Frankfurt Germany.
And what does tug of war fatalities have to do with Hacker News? Why not a story about people dying from vending machines falling over on them? (7 on average per year)
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