In what field, I wonder, do they discuss the greater strength of
some configurations of members vis -a vis others. SOMEBODY offered
me the answer to that question, but I have forgotten what the answer
was. Some sort of mechanics .... elementary? Can anybody remember
or provide the information again? Why are triangles strong?
I wasn't in the conversation that FRIAM, but I suspect someone
mentioned the study of Statics and Dynamics in Mechanics. Or where the
statics bit is sometimes called solid mechanics. Here's an MIT
opencourseware:
http://mit.sustech.edu/OcwWeb/Civil-and-Environmental-Engineering/1-050Fall-2004/CourseHome/index.htm
Course description: 1.050 is a sophomore-level engineering
mechanics course, commonly labelled "Statics and Strength of
Materials" or "Solid Mechanics I." This course introduces students to
the fundamental principles and methods of structural mechanics. Topics
covered include: static equilibrium, force resultants, support
conditions, analysis of determinate planar structures (beams, trusses,
frames), stresses and strains in structural elements, states of stress
(shear, bending, torsion), statically indeterminate systems,
displacements and deformations, introduction to matrix methods,
elastic stability, and approximate methods. Design exercises are used
to encourage creative student initiative and systems thinking.
--- -. . ..-. .. ... .... - .-- --- ..-. .. ... ....
[email protected]
(m) 505.577.5828 (o) 505.995.0206
redfish.com _ sfcomplex.org _ simtable.com _ lava3d.com
On Jun 7, 2009, at 9:56 AM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
John
Forgive what is going to seem like an odd response. I keep wanting
people to give me an account in terms of FORCES. So, it is not for
me, who is seeking advice on an explanation, to dictate what SORT of
an explanation is satisfactory. However, explanations like the the
one you kindly offered seem to my warped mind to be almost
circular: a triangle is strong because it has no choice but to be
strong.
The reason I am pondering this is because, remember, of its
connection to emergence. What is the relationship between teh
strength of a triangle and the strength of its parts. Well, on our
example, a triangle made out of weak wood and weak bolts is a weak
triangle. Thus, the strength of a triangle supervenes upon the
strength of its components.
But surely we cannot reduce the strength of a triangle to the
strength of its parts because the strength of a triangle depends on
the ARRANGEMENT of those parts. And arrangement is not a property
of any of the parts.
[sigh]
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([email protected])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
----- Original Message -----
From: John Sadd
To: [email protected];The Friday Morning Applied Complexity
Coffee Group
Sent: 6/7/2009 5:37:06 AM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] quick question
I would think they would use the language of mathematics, and I'm
not sure how it would contribute to an understanding of emergence.
Others whose knowledge of geometry is fresher than mine could
explain it better, but basically, once the length of the sides of a
triangle is fixed, by driving a nail or a bolt through the corners,
for instance, then there is only one set of internal angles that are
possible for those lengths, so the shape of the triangle can't be
changed without breaking the connections at the corners. For a
quadrilateral, though, the size of pairs of internal angles can be
changed so that as one angle grows larger, the adjacent one grows
smaller, preserving the total of 360 degrees; therefore a
quadrilateral can be smushed (technical term) as long as the
connections at the corners can be made to flex, without having to
change the lengths of the sides.
js
On Jun 6, 2009, at 11:57 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
On a recent friday, as part of my worrying about emergence, I was
trying to find out what sort of language wise people use when they
explain the greater resistance of triangles to compression. it
seemed to me that that example provided all the complexity we
needed for a thorough-going discussion of emergence. So if I could
learn how wise people talked about it, perhaps I could learn how
to talk about emergence in general.
In what field, I wonder, do they discuss the greater strength of
some configurations of members vis -a vis others. SOMEBODY offered
me the answer to that question, but I have forgotten what the
answer was. Some sort of mechanics .... elementary? Can anybody
remember or provide the information again? Why are triangles strong?
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([email protected])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
