Hank and Harry are two ice skaters whiling away time by playing 'tug of war' between practice sessions. They hold on to opposite ends of the same rope and pull the other toward him. The magnitude of Hank's acceleration is 1.26 times greater than the magnitude of Harry's acceleration. What is the ratio of Hank's mass to Harry's mass?

the ratio of Hank's mass to Harry's mass is 0.7937 or [ 0.7937 : 1

Explanation:

Given the data in the question;

Hank and Harry are two ice skaters, since both are on top of ice, we assume that friction is negligible.

We know that from Newton's Second Law;

Force = mass × Acceleration

F = ma

Since they hold on to opposite ends of the same rope. They have the same magnitude of force |F|, which is the same as the tension in the rope.

Now,

Mass × Acceleration = Mass × Acceleration

so

Mass /  Mass = Acceleration / Acceleration

given that; magnitude of Hank's acceleration is 1.26 times greater than the magnitude of Harry's acceleration,

Mass /  Mass = 1 / 1.26

Mass /  Mass = 0.7937 or [ 0.7937 : 1 ]

Therefore, the ratio of Hank's mass to Harry's mass is 0.7937 or [ 0.7937 : 1 ]