This is going to be one of my first technical posts!
Scenario: It was a rainy day yesterday and I had gone out to meet a friend. It was about 9’O clock in the night and I started from his place to mine. None of the autowalas were willing to drop me to my area and the ones who agreed were asking for an astronomical sum of money for just 4-5 Kms.
At-last after some 20-30 mins of auto hunting, I finally got one. It was on sharing basis (meaning he can pick-up as many people on the way!). Anyways I took it without having any other options.
There were already 2 people in the auto and I got in. After some time he stopped at some place and he picked up two more guys, they got in and were seated next to the driver. After a few mins another one! The auto was already loaded to its limits and the driver claimed passenger6 to be a friend and made him sit in the front! Passenger6 squeezed his way into the auto, and here it is auto loaded with 7 people including the driver! I don’t know if the driver had any place and where he rested his a.. on!
As I said it was a rainy day and there were many ponds formed on the way, I just hoped the auto would hold up and cross the ponds in 1 piece!
At last after a half an hour journey (Usually takes 10 mins if 3 passengers are in the auto!) there I was in my area, after I got down I remembered the concept of FOS and imagined what would be my plight if it weren’t implemented!!! (Guess the engineers at the auto making company use an astronomical number as factor of safety!!!)
Definition of FOS: FOS = Failure Load / Design Load
Explanation in terms of auto: Designed for 4 people, assuming that each passenger has an avg weight of 70Kgs, it is designed for carrying a weight of some 300Kgs excluding the self-weight. Now imagine weight of 7 people and their luggage, the load would be easily beyond 600 kgs!
Even if you load the auto more than what it is designed for, it won’t breakup, as failure load is much higher than the design load, as FOS is taken into consideration while in design! (Ex if you design something for 20Kg and the FOS is 3, Failure takes place only at 60 Kg hence even if you load it beyond 20Kg, to certain extent it holds!)
The same hold good for all people who go triples on a bike!
Thank you FOS!!!
