Q: My house plan calls for steel beams that will support the floor joists and even parts of a brick wall. Can I substitute wood beams for steel? Is a steel I-beam hard to handle on the job site? Do ...

The Contact stress and area problems set up like this. Picking calculation produces the outputs shown. Beam-section properties pop up with either of the beam modules, or can be accessed on its own.

This year at the San Francisco Bay Area Maker Faire, trying to juggle my own interests (talk to cool people) and my 5-year-old son's (build or break stuff), we both hit paydirt at the same time when ...