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Re: Can this be true?



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