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Interactive Graphic Statics Demonstrations
Simon Greenwold, while a student at MIT in a beginning structures class that used Shaping Structures as its text, wrote the first version of a truly stunning set of interactive demonstrations of graphic statics. These can be downloaded free and work on either a Mac or a PC.
There are eight demonstrations in all. One is for a cable/arch. Another is for cable-stayed bridges and roofs. A third is of a single-panel truss, and others cover multipanel trusses, overhanging trusses, a minimum-material truss, a cantilevered truss, and bending moment diagrams. In each demonstration, you or your students can click and drag any yellow circle node, and everything else on the page instantly shows the result of the move you have made. For instance, you can grab one node of the single-panel truss and move it so as to change the form of the truss. As you do so, the accompanying force polygon changes shape accordingly, the thicknesses of the members of the truss change, and a table of numerical values for the member forces in the truss changes, all to reflect the move that you made.
Among the particular favorites among the demos are the arch/cable, where you can drag the pole toward the load line and then across the load line with dramatic results, and also the minimum-material truss, where you experiment with the form of the truss and a bar graph and theoretical weight number keep track of how much the truss weighs. Students can compete against one another to find out who can create the most efficient form for the truss.
For the free download, go to acg.media.mit.edu/people/simong/statics/data/
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Click on the red heading "Download v.002"; to initiate the download. It's a small program and doesn't take long to acquire. When the download
has finished, bring the program onto the screen and browse the narrow left-hand column. Select the demo you'd like to try with a single click, and you're in business. There's a parallel column that contains a manual of things to try with each demonstration. |
