Well my mentors, it seems we have blown our chance to assist our colleague's learning process by our mindless glibness!! Zahid came here looking for help and was likely put off by the "typical witty banter" that he was subjected to. We should try to be a lot more sensitive to people's feelings. These are sincere people asking sincere questions. Yes, I have read the "I am not gonna help people who...(insert your list here)... but for those who feel that way I would suggest picking and choosing the questions that you weigh in on. If you don't like the question, ignore it and move along to the next question. I would suggest that we all started by asking uninformed questions about (really) fundamental engineering issues (if we could find somewhere to ask these questions). Or, perhaps more likely, we stood around shuffling our feet until someone else screwed up the courage to ask "the dumb question". I think it is likely that there are many times more people lurking on this discussion board, not asking their questions because of the way the mentors sometimes treat such questions. Some of us are forgetting where WE came from. Other "Kings" of the art seem to be protecting their throne by saying "off with their head" when the pretenders to the throne dare to approach. Maybe it is time for each of us to ask ourselves what drives us to post answers on dicsussion boards.

There is no "Piping Stress Analysis 101" into which people can enroll so maybe forums like this are where these people must start - THIS is where people take their uninformed questions. The books that we suggest here are expensive, sometimes out of reach and they cannot answer all the questions. This is one of the few places where people can "do their homework". I would suggest that in any endeavor, NO good is ever done by ridicule. It is NOT NECESSARY to make an effort to humble people who are already humble.

Now that I have that off my chest, I wonder if Zahid's model is simply seeing a case of lifting off the supports? Zahid if you are still out there, give us another chance and provide more details about your question.

Regards, John.