How Columns Work! (Part 1): Structures 4-1

Columns are all about how you place material to prevent buckling. Here I show four different columns, all with the same cross-sectional area but buckling under very different loads. Enjoy!

I'm Paul Kassabian. I'm a structural engineer and a Principal at SGH in Boston, MA. I taught graduate students at MIT for nine years and currently teach on/off at Harvard's Graduate School of Design (GSD). These are videos based on my years of teaching structures to students.

[JamesFSmith-cblz]

Hi Paul: I work daily as a Mechanical Engineer and I love your videos. I've forgotten some of your points over the years, while I realize I now understand some basic structures better than ever! You're an awesome teacher. Thank you for your work.

[sathamhussain]

I'm a civil engineer working in Dubai. I watched all your videos. It's really fascinating even most of the engineers are not aware of it. Please keep posting videos like this 🙏. I really appreciate your work. Thank you so much

[cherylmcginnis]

Hi Paul. I teach architecture at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in NYC. I absolutely love your videos. You are a great teacher.

[KeyWestSaltLife]

I really like this video series you put together. I find it fascinating and I am merely watching it just to better understand how structures distribute loads.

Thank you for taking the time to put this series together!

[bweber]

Working in a grocery warehouse; I'm curious about the pallet rack system which holds hundreds of thousand pound pallets of product. The racks are about 50' high with maybe 5 tiers(floors?) holding all this weight. The part I find curious is that the legs(columns) are not all straight to the ground. At the front of the racking system (where the aisles are for the forklifts to travel), the bottom 4' of all the "front" legs; are bent at maybe 30 degrees inward. I think this would be to provide fail safe clearance for the forklift chassis so they don't knock out a rack leg as they travel the aisles. What's confusing to me is it seems like this would undermine the load bearing capacity of the racks. Like the difference in a person holding a heavy weight with their legs locked straight vs their legs(or at least one leg) bent at the knee. Is this covered in any of your videos?

[AitanaPerez-bjhp]

As architecture student I love how explain this concepts.

[montanaplease]

But that last tube would like three times bigger diameter than that first round solid. Wish you could’ve done the same test with a solid of what you did on the last example.

[harmane]

Awesome representation
But for strictly experimental purposes how are you making sure that the angle and the tube cross section areas are equal to that circular column in the beginning?

[viisteist]

how is it the same shape when its actually totally different shape ?

[mlauntube]

Where is this man's wife to stop him from scuffing up the wood floor?