The Study of Strength of Materials: A Note on the Changes in the Teaching of the Subject to Aeronautical Engineers Necessitated by Recent Developments

THE study and teaching of the subject of ‘Strength of Materials’, in so far as the engineering student is concerned, is in a state of metamorphose much more far‐reaching than most of the other subjects in his curriculum. The problem of the behaviour of materials under the influence of loading has generally been treated as a more or less static one by the engineering designer. Having computed the load occurring upon a member in a structure, he provides the necessary reaction to this by assuming a strength of the material that he proposes to use, and giving the member the needful cross‐section. This assumed strength was found by testing samples under conditions that could quite fairly be described as ideal, and took no account of many effects that inevitably occur in everyday use. The fact that he was able to use large ‘factors of safety’ has undoubtedly covered many cases in which his assumptions of strength of the constructural material were, to say the least of it, optimistic.