Tension

You may have played a game known as tug-of-war with a rope when you were a kid. Tug-of-war involves two major forces at play: friction and tension. While we won't explain friction or the game here, we will outline the basic ideas behind tension.

Tension is described as a pulling force transmitted through a flexible medium of length. This means that whenever you pull something down via a rope, cable, string, etc., that flexible medium is applying a force of tension.