Example: An exercise bike that can support 250 lb. Does the engineer find a large enough weight that deforms the bike, then take a fraction of that as the amount it can support?
In: Engineering
On top of what everyone has said, we find (normally through modeling and simulation) what the weight would be in multiple configurations to induce “plastic” deformation, thats when the material starts behaving not like a rigid solid, but more like goop. We then design to a safety factor. Bikes for example, where material isn’t an incredible cost, maybe a safety factor of 5. The space shuttle had something like 1.1, where the vehicle could withstand 10% more than was ever expected.
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