One way spanning — where it appears
Named by 2 essays across 2 fields — each of them below, with the objects they name alongside it.
The load a beam is given is a decision
Every beam calculation on this site so far has started with a load per metre, handed over as though it were a property of the beam. It is not. It is the answer to a prior question nobody draws, and two defensible answers to it differ by sixty per cent on the same floor.
Folded until it spans
A flat sheet has a second moment of area of B·t³/12 and will not span anything. Folded, the same material has B·t·h²/12, and the gain is exactly the fold depth over the thickness, squared — a ratio with no material in it and no width in it.
Named alongside it
The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.
Self weightDistributed loadEfficiencyForm findingFree bodyLoad descentLoad pathLocal bucklingOptimisationPlate bucklingPlate slendernessSecond moment of area