Overview:

While climbing large exposed routes usually at or above 30-35 feet tall, climbers attach themselves to a rope which is connected to a variety of different protection options(discussed in the "protection" page) on the wall via their rope. The rope of a climber is the most essential tool that must be maintained and is critical to be in good condition before use. Through the progression of the sport, rock climbers have largely gravitated towards two styles of rope to do most of the modern climbing you would see today: static and dynamic ropes

Dynamic Ropes:

Dynamic ropes offers climbers an important advantage in their design being that the dynamic elongation provided when a climber falls and is caught by the rope allows for much of the kinetic energy of the fall to be absorbed by the rope and not into the climbers body. A dynamic rope can stretch up to 40% when under load and is intended to take large shocks to the system which are dispersed through the elongation material throughout the rope length in use. For this reason, taking a lead fall in most cases will not structurally compromise the integrity of the rope. 

Because most climbers opt for using a single rope when climbing, it is of essential importance that it is durable and reliable to be used and trusted. For this reason, ropes of the modern era are over engineered to hold upwards of 24 kilo-newtons of force. In comparison the normal static force a climbers weight produces from the force of gravity is approximately 1 kilo-newton. The force a typical lead fall produces on the rope is in the area of 3-5 kilo-newtons. This degree of separation lends to a high degree of confidence and allows climbers to be comfortable pushing their physical limitations without undo worry about the tenacity of their literal lifeline.

Static Ropes:

Static ropes are useful tools for a variety of climbing applications despite the fact that the ropes are not designed for taking lead falls onto them as they posses almost no elongation capability under load (approximately 1-5%) and thus are not suited for a fall. For this reason, climbers are able to make use of these ropes for other applications such as hauling gear when on longer climbs. Static ropes are advantageous for this purpose over dynamic ropes for the exact reason they cannot be used to climb on- elongation. As gear is pulled from one anchor up to the next a static rope allows for the most efficient hauling system because the heavy gear is not stretching the rope like it would with a dynamic rope causing some of the upward hauling effort to be lost by the rope.

Fall Factors:

An important consideration regarding a fall isn't the equipments ability to handle force as function of mass and acceleration. Rather what is known as a fall factor is a much bigger variable a climber must account for in the possibility of a fall. ​

The fall factor is derived from the distance fallen divided by the length of rope in the system. The higher number of a fall factor equates to more force applied to the protection and the belayer. 
F = H / L
F= fall factor
H= height of fall
L= length of rope in system

For live demonstrations of this event more information can be found here.