Uplift — where it appears
Named by 2 essays across 2 fields — each of them below, with 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.
The middle third
A material that cannot be pulled imposes a condition on where the load may land, and the condition is a region rather than a point. For a rectangle it is the famous middle third; for every other section it is a shape nobody quotes, and one ordinary section's is nearly twice as generous as the rule allows.
Named alongside it
The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.
Bearing pressureEccentricityKernFactor of safetyFree bodyNo tension materialOverturningSecond momentSection modulusSelf weightThrust line