Talk:Euler's critical load

Minimum second moment of area?

The article states:

$I$ , minimum second moment of area of the cross section of the column (area moment of inertia),

but also

The cross-section of the column is uniform throughout its length.

While this it's technically wrong, isn't the word minimum superfluous here (and even misleading, because it suggests that the formula might be usable for beams with varying cross-section as long as you take the minimum $I$ )? 2A02:560:53C2:3500:5C06:5979:4052:4508 (talk) 13:48, 1 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for pointing this out. Fixed NeedsGlasses (talk) 23:36, 3 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

According to Roark's Formulas for Stress and Strain, for a rectangular cross-section, the area moment of inertia is computed as b*d^3/12, where b and d are the dimensions of the rectangle. Suppose that the dimensions are 1 and 0.5. If one assumes b=1 and d=0.5, then I is 0.01041666... But if one assumes b=0.5 and d=1, then I is 0.04166... It is very important that the critical buckling load be computed using the minimum of those two I values. 71.90.94.166 (talk) 14:19, 3 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]