mechanical tension

Nine men pull on a rope. The rope in the photo extends into a drawn illustration showing adjacent segments of the rope. One segment is duplicated in a free body diagram showing a pair of action-reaction forces of magnitude T pulling the segment in opposite directions, where T is transmitted axially and is called the tension force. This end of the rope is pulling the tug of war team to the right. Each segment of the rope is pulled by the two neighboring segments, stressing the segment in what is also called tension.

Tension is the pulling or stretching force transmitted axially along an object such as a string, rope, chain, rod, truss member, or other object, so as to stretch or pull apart the object. In terms of force, it is the opposite of compression. Tension might also be described as the action-reaction pair of forces acting at each end of an object.