Statics — Forces & Equilibrium

Distributed loads — spread weight to a single point

continues from lesson 3 — values defined earlier in the course stay live here

ELI5: a beam doesn't carry its load at one spot — snow, water, or its own weight presses along its whole length. A uniform load of w (force per metre) over length L behaves like one force w·L acting at the middle. From there it's an ordinary balance.

w_{dist} := 5 kN/m

= 5 kN / m uniform load along the beam

L_{beam} := 4 m

= 4 m beam length

W_{total} = w_{dist} \cdot L_{beam}

= 20 kN equivalent point load = 20 kN

R_{left} = \frac{W_{total}}{2}

= 10 kN each support carries half (symmetric)

✓ pass

abs(2 * R_{left} - W_{total}) < 1e-9 kN

the two reactions add up to the whole load