DISCUSSIONS

Beams are used to carry different loads. For example, beams on the floor carry tables, shelves, and even us, humans. Beams on the roof carry snow, and can withstand the impact of rain, hail, and even wind. The amount of loads a beam can carry is called the strength of that beam. Strength of beams depend on certain properties of the beam, such as, material, length, width, depth and the shape.

Beams can be made out of many different materials. Some examples of such materials are steel, plastic, concrete, aluminum, glass, wood, etc. Wood material was used for experiment 1 and experiment 2 discussed in my science project. By testing on wood I found out that the strength of the beam is proportional to the strength of the material.

Another property of the beam is it's length. The length of a beam may be long or may be short. The shorter the beam is the stronger it will be because the strength of the beam is inversely proportional to the length of the beam.

The width of the beam is another parameter that determines the failure load of a beam. Experiment 1 tested on different widths of wooden beams. By looking at the results one can see that the strength of the beams increases as the width of the beam increases. The width of the beam is proportional to the strength of the beam.

Another parameter of a beam is its depth. The effects of the depth of beams was tested in Experiment 2. As the depth of the beam increases so does its strength. The strength of the beam is proportional to (depth)². That means if you double the depth, the strength will increase by four times.

Beams are now made of different shapes. Experiment 3 is about strength of beams having different cross-section shapes. Out of the shapes of a square, circle, triangle, inverted triangle, and folded plates, the square was the strongest.