Types of Structures
Describing Structures
Mass and Forces
Forces, Loads and Stresses
How Structures Fail
100

A push or pull, or anything that causes a change in the motion of an object .

What is a force?

100

This is the job that the structure is designed to do.  For example, a train bridge is designed to support the weight of the train.

What is function?

100

A measure of the amount of matter in material.

What is mass?

100

Stresses that act on a structure from outside it. For example, your kick when striking a soccer ball.  These produce internal forces.

What are external forces?

100

A device that can change the amount of force needed to move an object.

What is a lever?

200

The weight carried or supported by a structure.

What is load?

200

Are made from more than one type of material.  Example:  concrete can be reinforced using steel rods.

What are combination structures?

200

Stresses such as pushes or pulls.

What are forces?

200

Stresses put on the materials that make up a structure. Are the result of external forces.

What are internal forces?

200

Car bumpers and sheet metal used in cars are designed to do this in a collision.

What is absorb collision forces OR absorb the impact?

300

Things with a definite size and shape, which serve a definite function.

What is a structure?

300

Layers of different materials pressed or glued together.

What are laminations?

300

This is the standard unit of force.

What is a Newton?

300

Internal stresses can change the shape of a structure.  This change of shape to a structure is called a ...

What is deformation?

300

In a boat's outboard motor, the propeller is held to the engine with this kind of pin.  This pin breaks if the propeller gets tangled in the weeds.  This is done to..

What is save the engine?

400

These objects are strong and hollow and have a thin outer layer that is carefully shaped to provide strength.

What is a shell?

400

Where a structure's parts are held together.

What are joints?

400

What is needed to describe a force (think: MDL).

What is the Magnitude, Direction and Location

400

Bends or tears material by pushing it in opposite directions at the same time. 

What is shear force?

400

If a great enough _______ is applied to a building, it will begin to fail.

force

500

Examples of this type of structure include football helmets, dams, airplanes, domed buildings, warehouses.

What is a shell?

500

Glue and cement are types of this joint.

What are adhesives?

500

The force exerted by gravity on an object; measured in Newtons.  This is the scientific term for the everyday term "weight."

What is gravitational force?

500

Twist the material by turning the ends in opposite directions.  Example:  doorknob.

What is torsion?

500

When metal weakens due to stress. This process often results in the metal cracking and breaking.

What is Structural Fatigue?