Interactive Graphic Statics

Some nice examples of processing-based interactive graphic static applets have been developed at the MIT. Interactive Thrust is a project started by Philippe Block under supervision of John Ochsendorf.



A truss geometry and its force diagram by Luigi Cremona.


Another great interactiv webpage is Active Statics, developed by Simon Greenwold, Ed Allen and Waclaw Zalewski.

Graphic Statics

The french mathematician Pierre Varignon (1654-1722) introduced the funicular polygon and the polygon of forces in his work Nouvelle Mecanique ou Statique. He describes a way to construct the form of a hanging rope with attached weights graphicaly. Based on this principle, a technique called graphic statics has been developed in the 19th century. The basic principle of graphic statics is the reciprocal relation between force polygon and funicular polygon. Recomended books: Luigi Cremona: Graphical Calculus (1890) and Edward Allen,Waclaw Zalewski: Form and Forces (2009)

This grasshopper definition generates a funicular polygon for uniform loading. Download here.