Series

Span scaling — the series

One essay so far on this idea, and more questions about it than one essay answers.
  1. Deflection goes as the fourth power of the span. Deflection against span for a constant load intensity and section, with two slower relationships drawn faintly behind it for comparison: the load itself, which grows in proportion to the span, and the bending moment, which grows as its square. Doubling the span multiplies the deflection by sixteen, while the moment only quadruples.

    Span to the fourth, which is why spans are short

    Doubling a span multiplies its deflection by sixteen. No other relationship in ordinary structural work is that steep, and it is the reason long spans are always a different kind of structure.

    part 1 · deflection

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