Author(s)

Jorge Garcia¹, Greg Wood², Fernando Barrera-Mora³

¹Mathematics Department, CSU Channel Islands, Camarillo, USA.
²Physics Department, CSU Channel Islands, Camarillo, USA.
³Área Académica de Matemáticas y Física, UAEH, Hidalgo, Mexico.

A weight is placed on the top of a rectangular rigid ideal table with four legs, each leg is placed at each vertex of the rectangular table. It is assumed that the legs do not bend when the weight is added. The reactions are computed by assuming the table is supported on a beam, introducing two new beam parameters and minimizing a deflection function of the new parameters. A physical experiment is performed in the lab and the reactions on each leg are provided. The experimental results match the theoretical ones obtained by the proposed model. Geometrical interpretations of the results are given.

Reaction Forces, Rectangular Table, Deflection, Rigid Table, Indeterminate Case, Torque

Garcia, J. , Wood, G. and Barrera-Mora, F. (2015) Reactions on Rigid Legs of Rectangular Tables. Applied Mathematics, 6, 599-616. doi: 10.4236/am.2015.63055.