If a vine is hung over a tree branch in the forest and two monkeys are hanging on both ends then the tension in the vine will be equal throughout the whole rope, since if it wasn’t the vine would snap or go slack.
The tension force for one monkey’s side will be equal and opposite to the tension force on the other monkey’s side.
The vine itself will also require a different amount of force to slide across the top of the branch depending on how the vine and the tree branch interact.
The force required for movement is unique depending on the materials (which defines a coefficient of friction).
Objects will have different coefficients of friction, denoted as mu, based on how they act together.
In analyzing situations it is good to draw a picture or “free body diagram” and decide what the axes are, including which directions should be understood as positive and negative.
The free body diagram should only be applied to simple situations (generally one or a few objects involved).
When the situation is complicated, like the effect of huge numbers of electrons hitting an object, other theories come into play.
Even with fifty forces that are three dimensional, you would have to add up 150 components (x, y, z for each) and that wouldn’t be fun.
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