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Building Bridges
Name: Adam
Status: Student
Grade: 6-8
Location: IN
Country: United States
Date: January 2008
Question:
How are bridges built to support the
weight of cars and trains and other vehicles every
day?
Replies:
Hi Adam,
Your question is FAR too big to answer in the space available. To do
so, I would need to write a textbook! There are many, many different
types of bridges, and all use different design principles. For
example, a suspension bridge is a totally different structure than a
truss bridge, or a cable-stayed bridge, or a cantilever bridge, just
to name a few.
You may be able to get a feel for the stresses in the common "truss
bridge" by looking at this website:
http://www.jhu.edu/~virtlab/bridge/truss.htm
This not only shows you how the various beams are stressed 9some in
tension and some in compression0, but if you click on the link at the
bottom, you can try designing one yourself and see what stresses
result. Lots of fun!
Regards,
Bob Wilson
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Update: June 2012
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