The idea of forces
held apart by a distance leads us to trusses. The straw and
paper clip shapes you made earlier this year were relatives of the truss.
The diagrams above are examples of
simple trusses. At this point, I'd like you to note that the loads
applied to the top of the truss are distributed equally to the ends of the
trusses or bearing points. Another way of saying this is that
the loads are distributed equally to the reaction points.
Trusses work by accepting loads
at their connection points and distributing them through the diagonal
web members and the top and bottom horizontal members called chords.
In our previous examples, the compression forces were mostly in the top
flange of the beam. Here, those forces are confined to the top chord
member. Tension forces are confined to the bottom chord member.
Let's kick it up a notch! |