'Spirit Week' high school game of tug-of-war results in multiple severed fingers

[wfgodot]

‘Multiple Fingers’ Severed During High School Game of Tug-of-War (Gawker)

A Spirit Week game of tug-of-war at South El Monte High School in El Monte, California, took a tragic turn yesterday, sending two students to the emergency room with several missing fingers.
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more at the link above

 

[Nova]

Isn't tug of war supposed to be played with a rope too thick to wrap around one's fingers?

 

[wfgodot]

Isn't tug of war supposed to be played with a rope too thick to wrap around one's fingers?

Yes, thought so too. Have had a couple nasty rope burns in my time, but no missing digits.

 

[Nova]

It's interesting that the digits weren't snapped until the rope itself broke. Perhaps M. Godot will explain the physics involved...

 

[wfgodot]

It's interesting that the digits weren't snapped until the rope itself broke. Perhaps M. Godot will explain the physics involved...

And perhaps pigs will fly!

 

[SapphireSteel]

:what:

 

[Nova]

I'll give it a try: suppose the victims were near the front of their team. Before the rope broke, there was a relative balance between the two teams pulling in opposite directions.

Once the rope broke, all stress would have come only from the players on the victims' team. (One can imagine the players on each side falling down and away from the other team.)

Maybe it was that sudden pull that tore off their fingers.

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Below is an update: victims are recovering; no word whether surgery to reattach digits was successful; other tug of war injuries listed at bottom of article...

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/ar...-fingers-in-tug-of-war-recovering-4252760.php

***

Okay, more on tug-of-war injuries than I ever intended to know:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tug_of_war#Risk_of_Injury


Injuries can result when the rope is looped around hands or fingers and the tension is suddenly reversed (as I describe above). HOWEVER, a suddenly breaking plastic (nylon, etc.) rope can fly through the air with such speed and force that it can amputate fingers much like a guillotine amputates heads. Who knew?