Deflection

All structures deflect, as stated be any structural engineer. But, if they do not deflect, the structure will break. The same can be stated about the society that we live in. If people do not bend, our society will collapse.

After construction was started on the RMS Titanic, it was noticed that the steel would not bend. Especially, at cold temperatures, the steel would break instead of bend. With the hull well under construction, they constructed water tight bulkheads through the length of the shop. They determined that they were past the point of construing a double hull. After the HMS Hawke crashed into the RMS Olympic, it let a localized hole in the side of the RMS Olympic. Considering that the size of the hole in the RMS Olympic was localized, it was determined the any crashes in to the RMS Titanic would also be localized.

On April 15, 1912, the RMS Titanic sideswiped an iceberg. As predicted, the steel broke instead of bending or deflect. But, instead of the broken steel being confined to on area between the bulkheads, the steel was broken in more than one or two areas. So, the water went over the top of the water tight bulkheads and sunk.

When George Washington was president, he had two brilliant secretaries that would not bend. His solution was very obvious. He got a row boat and placed Thomas Jefferson in either the bow or stern and place Alexander Hamilton in the other end of the boat. After George rowed the boat out into the Potomac River, George stated discussing the topics that was relevant to him. From what I understand, the boat never capsized. So, Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Hamilton learned to bend. Just as there are many topics in our society that need to deflect.

To keep structures from bending too much, they are strengthened. The Eiffel Tower was build out of wrought iron and wrought iron is brittle. This was in the days before ductile. So, to keep the iron from breaking with the back and forth movement of the wind, the tower was over build with wrought iron to minimize that deflection of the iron.

In the Declaration of Independence, there is a statement, “all men are created equal.” This statement is a little out dated, since Thomas Jefferson was really stating that all individuals are created equal. But, as we hear every day, there are certain races of human beings that are dominate over others. In the past few years, our society is taking a major hit over this topic; and, as it looks right now, this topic could destroy our society and the United States Constitution. If there is no bending on this topic, the future is bleak.

If a structure does too much bending, it will yield and the structure will crash. The I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis is a prime example. The bridge was bridge was built in 1964 with slide rules for the mathematics calculations. Although there is nothing wrong using slide rulers, since the use of slide rulers put man on the noon, but it does reflect the period of time that this bridge was constructed. The bridge is a deck truss with members being in tension or compression. Where these structural members come together, there are gusset plates. These gusset places were calculated for the bridge two have four lanes of traffic, but not six lanes with on ramps and off ramps. Therefore, when the structure was

widened, the gusset plates were never recalculated for strengthened. Therefore, on August 1, 2007, under construction, the steal yielded (deflected) and the bridge when down.

During the summer of 2020, we again saw our society collapse with due to rio%ng throughout the United States. When racial tensions get too high, there is civil unrest. Since these racial tensions cannot be contained with our local, state, and government forced, the civil unrest means that our society has broken or yielded.

This blog is about the defection that is needed in our society. As most citizens are voting today, they are voting for a feel good society without the US Constitution. But what this a feel good society? It has no definition, and it indicates no direction, as if the society is determined by the direction of the wind, but this is far from what is like living in a feel good society, Once the pulse of society is taken, the societal leaders lead with brutal force. So there is nothing about kinder and gentler government. Or, in better words, the society has yielded out of shape. (The society has deflected so far out of shape that it cannot be bent back into shape.) Until recently, US citizens expected the US society to deflect.