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- Do structural engineers understand how gravity works?
Hi, I’ve got a question.
it seems that engineers, structural mainly, don’t seem to understand how gravity works regarding an endless stationary (steel) ring/bridge around the equator.
Many if not all have said that such a ring would be modeled as two half circles pushing into each other. So the ring would need to be thousands of times stronger than the material...
I say, and many non-structural engineers agree, that the above assumption is wrong.
it is easily demonstrated with the following example...
Place a tube in a tray of water and attach strings through a funnel in the centre. Add equal self weigh of the tube and nothing will happen. Regular grade 350 steel will take almost 4,000 times it’s own weight.
One reply was that the ring “wouldn’t be floating on water anyway”... Another sent me the maths on how much weigh the tube would hold before it sank into the water... I had to explain that the water only represents lateral stability which is easily controlled and that the ring would be held in place with ground anchored cables. Hovering above the earth.
Because structural engineers are so knowledgeable about land bridges, is it possible that they cannot visualise how gravity would effect such a structure?
I have asked many to explain why they think that their model is right but they refuse to reply... Is this a common phenomenon/mind blockage amongst engineers?
Interested to hear your thoughts.
David
Here’s a link that pretty well confirms my analogy... surely they know what they’re talking about!
it seems that engineers, structural mainly, don’t seem to understand how gravity works regarding an endless stationary (steel) ring/bridge around the equator.
Many if not all have said that such a ring would be modeled as two half circles pushing into each other. So the ring would need to be thousands of times stronger than the material...
I say, and many non-structural engineers agree, that the above assumption is wrong.
it is easily demonstrated with the following example...
Place a tube in a tray of water and attach strings through a funnel in the centre. Add equal self weigh of the tube and nothing will happen. Regular grade 350 steel will take almost 4,000 times it’s own weight.
One reply was that the ring “wouldn’t be floating on water anyway”... Another sent me the maths on how much weigh the tube would hold before it sank into the water... I had to explain that the water only represents lateral stability which is easily controlled and that the ring would be held in place with ground anchored cables. Hovering above the earth.
Because structural engineers are so knowledgeable about land bridges, is it possible that they cannot visualise how gravity would effect such a structure?
I have asked many to explain why they think that their model is right but they refuse to reply... Is this a common phenomenon/mind blockage amongst engineers?
Interested to hear your thoughts.
David
Here’s a link that pretty well confirms my analogy... surely they know what they’re talking about!