The Suspense in Failure: A Simple Model of Breakage Goes Universal

It's a classic scene in action movies: The hero is dangling from a rope, staring down at certain death. Just as he starts climbing, a fiber snaps above his head. A suspenseful score swells as a hidden clock begins to count down until the final fiber breaks. We see another snap, and then another. Just in the nick of time, the hero lands safely on a ledge as the rope plummets into the depths."Neglecting a few 'Deus ex machina' elements, the mechanical behavior of the rope is qualitatively well rep...