Equal Forces in Tug of War: Shared vs Separate Lines

[ThatDudePursley]

Im curious as to if i took 3 trucks, put them in a single file line all facing the same direction. Then hooked up a tow line from truck 1 to truck 2. Then from truck 2 to truck 3.

Then if i took a 4th truck and hooked it to the back of truck 3 facing the opposite direction. Almost like tug of war. 3 vs 1.

Since the 3 trucks on the one side are all using separate lines rather than one like similar to tug of war with people would that still triple the strength for that side giving them the advantage over the lone truck they are tugging against? I feel like they would just be almost working against each other because they are not on the same line. Please help.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Then hooked up a tow line from truck 1 to truck 2. Then from truck 2 to truck 3.

all using separate lines

This is not clear, at all. Are they all on the same line or not? Does it make any difference?
What do you think about it? Do the forces from each truck affect the forces on the others? Why?

 

[ThatDudePursley]

This is not clear, at all. Are they all on the same line or not? Does it make any difference?
What do you think about it? Do the forces from each truck affect the forces on the others? Why?

They are not using the same line. Ill add an illustration to try and make it a little more clear. Hopefully that helps clarify.

 

[A.T.]

There is no difference between lines connecting trucks in series vs trucks attached along to one straight line.

I feel like they would just be almost working against each other...

This can happen in both variants you proposed, because both have the trucks in series. To avoid that you arrange the trucks in parallel, each attached to the left truck with it's own line.

 

[sophiecentaur]

In both cases, the forces 1,2,3 will add together. The only difference between the two situations is that the tension in a shared line between 3 and 4 will be equal to all three forces from 1,2 and 3. The line would need to be stronger.
@ThatDudePursley: Do you have any reason to suspect that the two situations will be any different? We have to assume that the trucks are actually exerting the same forces whether connected by the same or separate lines. The stretch in the line will be different, of course, and the positions of the three trucks will depend on the others when the line is shared. Where the trucks are connected by separate lines, the stretch will be less. But the basic F4 = F1+F2+F3 still applies. Why wouldn't it?