This is sort of statics, but this came up in my physics class before.
You have a plate, supported only in the middle by a simple support. So, this beam is balanced on the support, and is bending under it's own weight. What shape does the beam take? I was thinking either a inverted parabola or catenary shape? But I don't know how to prove this.
How can you show mathematically that this is the shape it has?
You have a plate, supported only in the middle by a simple support. So, this beam is balanced on the support, and is bending under it's own weight. What shape does the beam take? I was thinking either a inverted parabola or catenary shape? But I don't know how to prove this.
How can you show mathematically that this is the shape it has?