Ask Symmetra: Unbearably Stacked
Elegant solutions to complex problems
Dear Symmetra:
In the last few months my life has become a stack of responsibilities, always getting higher and heavier. I'm worried I won't be able to bear up under the load.
What can I do? ÑK.E.
Dear K.E.:
Stay calm, and assess the situation. The main thing is to avoid collapse.
The collapsing load for a given column is
where ƒc expresses the safe compressive stresses for very short lengths of you, A is your cross-sectional area, h is your height, d is the smallest diameter or width of your cross-section, and c is a constant whose value you probably already know.
Do the calculation. Once you know your limit, just be careful to maintain a good margin of safety.
Then you can relax!
If you have a question for scientist/supermodel Symmetra, send it to: "Ask Symmetra," Annals of Improbable Research, PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA. Because of volume of mail, replies to personal invitations are not possible.
© Copyright 2000 Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
This HotAIR feature first appeared in Volume
6 Issue 6 of the print magazine. For a complete list of web site featured
articles, see What's New.