We provide a continually improving collection of questions and
answers It is delightful to have my masters degree in Mechanical
Engineering put to use in resolving age old engineering
problems. (Not photographed: Her feet) One can never know the
exact shape or size of the slippers that Cinderella wore, but
one can hazard a guess that they must have looked something like
this: Now, let’s talk about failure. No, not about Cinderella’s
failure to keep her shoes on her feet, but about mechanical
failure. Whenever we design something that needs to bear force,
we test for various possible modes of failure and try to ensure
that our object is strong against all of them. Now, one possible
way the slippers could break is by yielding to the compressive
stress arising due to Cinderella’s weight. But will that happen?
We can safely assume that Cindy didn’t weigh more than than 50
kgs. I mean, her cousins were fat and ugly, so we have to leave
them some room on the top, right? Let’s assume this weight to be
applied unifor