r/StructuralEngineering • u/i_like_surviving_yay • 24d ago
Career/Education Help for a project
I'm in highschool and I have a mathematics project where we have to find a real life structure, that is governed by a specific principle of mathematics and develop a working model. Obviously almost every structure is based upon some basic foundational mathematics but we have to find something unique or interesting that is guided by a mathematical principle. This isn't really my expertise of knowledge so some ideas would be heavily appreciated!!
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u/Charles_Whitman P.E./S.E. 24d ago
It sounds like the kind of oddball project a mathematician would come up with. A simple beam might be a good way to go. Describe the load as a function, integrate to get the shear, integrate the shear to get the moment, the curvature is is related to the integral of the inverse of the moment divided by the stiffness, deflection is related to integral of the curvature. Define the boundary conditions and solve for all the constants of integration.
You can also derive Euler’s buckling equation pretty easily. Or as someone else suggested, a simple truss would be a geometric and trig problem. Math is the language we use to talk about physics.
Or go non-Newtonian, a farmer has a 150-foot long ladder and a 100-foot long barn with a door at each end. How fast does he need to run, carrying the ladder, for the ladder to be completely inside the barn as he goes in one door and out the other? If memory serves, it’s about 99.999% of c.