Concept
Factor of safety — where it appears
2 essays name this object, across one field. What follows is each of them, and the objects they name alongside it.
Weight is the only thing resisting it
A structure that is strong enough everywhere can still be blown over, and nothing in its material properties has any part in whether it is. The whole answer is a weight and a width — and the failure begins long before anything tips, at the moment one edge stops pressing down.
A basement is a boat
Every load in this collection presses down and is resisted by strength. Hydrostatic uplift presses up, is resisted by weight, and does not care what is built on it — so the check contains no material property at all. It is a ratio of two weights, and one of them is water.
Named alongside it
The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.
Free bodyOverturningUpliftBallastBearing pressureBuoyancyControl perimeterDrainageEccentricityEffective depthEquilibriumFlotation