DESIGNED FOR TEACHING: Statics: a strut‐and‐tie apparatus

Statics is one of the basic subjects of which physicists, mathematicians, engineers — and above all, just people — should have a good understanding. It is introduced early in the school curriculum, yet experiments on the composition and resolution of forces often appeal only to sophisticated minds with a flair for abstraction. Strings and pulleys relate to neither the theoretical concept of force on the one hand, nor to real‐life situations on the other. Moreover, strings preclude forces that ‘push’ as well as ‘pull’.