Modeling a Falling Rope Ladder That Falls Faster Than Free Fall.
I saw this YouTube short on Vertiasium’s channel. It shows two falling rope ladders. The one on the left hits a table while the one on the right never hits anything. Which one ends up falling faster? The one that hits the table (SPOILER ALERT).
So, I THINK that the key to this falling ladder problem has to do with the tilted rungs. When one side of a rung hits the table before the other side does, there is an induced rotational motion. This rotation stretches the string on the opposite side and pulls DOWN on the rung above it.
Here is my sketch of how this works (how I think it works at least).
Notice that I am trying to show the “slackness” in the right string as the bottom rung is hit. Of course, this would only be slack if the middle rung couldn’t rotate — which I’m assuming it won’t because it’s connect to the stuff above it.
