From: Dennis Gibson
Date: 22 Nov 2002
Time: 07:59:44
Remote Name: 150.203.2.85
Technically this is true. For a beam in a bending, the top and bottom are the "stressed" members and the sides only hold them apart. The centre line of the sides are along the "neutral axis" which has no stress. Think of the bottom under tension and the top under compression. In the middle the stresses cancel, so the best place to remove weight (a meaningless, academic process which can sometimes look cool) without reducing beam strength is in the centre of the sides!
DG