Question

A 75-kg petty thief wants to escape from a third-story jail window. unfortunately, a makeshift rope made of sheets tied together can support a mass of only 58 kg. how might the thief use this "rope" to escape? which response is the best?

Answer 1

Rope can sustain the mass of 58 kg

while the mass of theif is 75 kg

now if thief want to escape from jail then he must have to accelerate on the rope so that tension will be less than its mass

so here we can say

$mg - T = ma$

now we will plug in the values as

$m = 75 kg$

$T = 58 (9.8)$

now from above equation we will have

$75(9.8) - 58(9.8) = 75 a$

$a = 9.8 - \frac{58}{75}(9.8)$

$a = 2.22 m/s^2$

so the thief must have to slide down the rope with minimum 2.22 m/s^2 acceleration in order to escape using the rope