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Friction and area.





Ask a sailor or a cowboy. Both know from experience that if
something-tied-to-a-rope is too heavy (or pushy) to be
held by you, you may turn your end the rope around a tree
or any other pole. You are not supposed to tie a knot on the tree,
just coil the rope around it. If the rope is coiled several turns, then
you need only the little finger to keep the cow.

Engineers also know about these matters. The care about how
much surface there is between the belt and the pulley. They
even have formulas to compute the friction in these cases.

Dario Moreno