|
![](/i/fill.gif) |
>> Hmm, interesting. I wouldn't have expected that to work.
>
> What, that a car has more weight on the front wheels than the back?
Possibly, once you've got the back wheels up on a ramp. ;-)
I meant more that I wouldn't have expected to be able to just completely
disregard 3/4 the weight of the object just because I'm only looking at
one wheel.
>> Sure. I just meant that they probably design them to easily support
>> more weight than any common car that somebody might try to put on them.
>
> You would think so.
So it's probably rated to 5 tonnes or something.
>> Isn't the worst-case when you drive the car onto the ramp and the
>> suspension jiggles it up and down over one support column?
>
> Probably. But I really suspect in the design of these things that they
> just make a few and test them.
Oh, yeah, probably. More like they figure out approximately how much
load it's supposed to take, then design it to withstand 80% more or
something, and then go check whether it breaks or not.
>> So... what the hell is the thickness of a tin can then?
>
> 0.2 mm or thereabouts.
...my God. You can make metal that thin?? o_O
>> Those seem to deform pretty easily.
>
> You mean by squeezing them on the sides? Well yes, I can bend my ruler
> too pretty easily and that's 1mm thick! What you're doing there is
> essentially using a huge lever, you are moving your fingers a few cm to
> cause a contraction/expansion of a few microns in the surface of the
> material, generating a huge stress which causes it to permanently
> distort. Now try to permanently stretch a tin can by pulling on each
> end :-)
Heh, yeah, well, those horizontal beams may only be 5cm long, but they
have up to 2 tonnes pushing them sideways. That's a lot of force...
PS. Apparently human bones have a higher tensile strength than solid
copper. WTF?
Post a reply to this message
|
![](/i/fill.gif) |