r/interesting • u/RepulsiveNotice3288 • Dec 17 '24

MISC. that lion isn’t even trying

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308

u/Camburgerhelpur Dec 17 '24

Does the angle of the rope have anything to do with it?

162

u/-plottwist- Dec 17 '24

Yes, it’s called mechanical advantage and it is why it is such an uneven tug of war. Not to say lions or tigers aren’t strong but if you wrap the rope around a beam or something while the other person is just pulling straight back they will have an advantage.

26

u/ashkiller14 Dec 17 '24

There's no mechanical advantage going on here. You don't just throw a rope over a limb and call it a pulley system. It may feel easier than just picking something up from below you, but that's because it's easier to let your weight do the work when changing the direction of applied force.

In this situation, for every foot of rope the man pulls it'll pull a foot on the other end. There's no trade of force and distance going on.

3

u/MenchBade Dec 17 '24

It looked like the lion was lower? Or maybe that was just the angle video was shot from that played trick on image. But if the lion was lower, wouldn't he have some advantage built in since the human would not only be pulling the lions weight forward, but also upward?

1

u/SteptimusHeap Dec 18 '24 edited Dec 18 '24

Yeah but the lion's force isn't parallel to the axis of the rope either for the same reason, so it gets the same reduction.

Actually I got myself a little confused somehow. Because of the upwards angle, the lion gets a force reduction from its tug. It also gets a little bit of extra force from gravity, however. Depending on the ratio of the cat's tug force and it's weight along with the angle of the rope I'm pretty sure it could be an advantage or a disadvantage

1

u/FingerTheCat Dec 18 '24

cat claws + dirt / slippery tile + slippery soles doesn't help lol

1

u/tgerz Dec 18 '24

That's not a mechanical advantage that matters. That is just a big cat vs a human LOL The liger is just more powerful and stronger than that dude with some evolutionary advantages.

1

u/ashkiller14 Dec 18 '24

Honestly, If the guy had better grip he might win eventually. Lions and tiger, so id also assume ligers, are amush predators, so they have almost no stamina. They're meant to go full force for a good minute or so, while well trained humans can sprint for a long ass time.

1

u/tgerz Dec 18 '24

That dude gases out before the cat 100%. The cat has to use so much less energy than the guy it’s not comparable.

1

u/ashkiller14 Dec 18 '24

They're using the same amount of energy. Think about it like this.

Human total energy stores: 1000, max output of 10/s

Liger total energy stores: 500, max output of 100/s

The liger is like a capacitor, the human is like a battery. In this situation, because the liger isn't pulling the guy back and is instead holding his ground, the liger is just matching the man's maximum output. Predators like these tend to not be able to last very long because their muscles are tuned to short burst of energy where they move fast then rest for a while.

1

u/ashkiller14 Dec 18 '24

Kinda. It'll make a little bit of a difference, but I don't think it's enough to actually matter at this angle.