Happy Engineers’ Week! To celebrate this year, we’re going to dive into beam theory! Last summer, Oscar wrote an excellent article about building LEGO SHIPs where he dived into the strength of brick-built beams to support large space-faring MOCs. This has percolated in my brain for the last several months; and with some theory, experimentation, and math, we’ll learn what happens when you… abuse well-established engineering principles. Beam Me Up! Beams are long structural members that support loads perpendicular to their long axis. Think bridges, floor and ceiling joists, airplane wings, diving boards, and shelves to name a few common beams that may be in your everyday life. We are going to be exploring basic beam theory, which has some very specific assumptions and lots of math (that I will try to keep relatively simple and avoid the “Here be Calculus” parts of the map). Beam Problem form Engineering Mechanics Statics...











