Abstract
The classical fundamentals of modern Structural Mechanics have been founded by two scientists. In his work “Discorsi ”, Galileo GALILEI (1564 – 1642) carried out the first systematic investigations into the fracture process of brittle solids. Besides that, he also described the influence of the shape of a solid (hollow solids, bones, blades of grass) on its stiffness, and thus successfully treated the problem of the Theory of Solids with Uniform Strength. One century later, Robert HOOKE (1635–1703) stated the fundamental law of the linear theory of elasticity by claiming that strain (alteration of length) and stress (load) are proportional (“ut tensio sic vis ”). On the basis of this material law for the Theory of Elasticity, Edme MARIOTTE (1620 – 1684), Gottfried Wilhelm von LEIBNIZ (1646 – 1716), Jakob BERNOULLI (1654 – 1705), Leonard EULER (1707 – 1783), Charles Augustin COULOMB (1736 – 1806) and others treated special problems of bending of beams.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Eschenauer, H., Olhoff, N., Schnell, W. (1997). Introduction. In: Applied Structural Mechanics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59205-8_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59205-8_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-61232-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-59205-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive