Soter Salem

This just discusses the general aspects of shearing and bending, the operative line that I couldn't find more on was "The deflection of a beam under load depends not only on the load, but also on the geometry of the beam's cross-section." Maybe I just missed it, but the page really didn't get into that, which is what I was attempting to ask about with my question.

Okay then in that case, what is it about the hydrogen bond that gives water it's 'wetness'?

I've got a general question about how something's shape affects it's, uh, strength? Perhaps an example would be more helpful; when eating pizza, the front of the slice will fold down unless the eater bends the slice vertically, what's up with that? A similar scenario occurs with a flat piece of paper, it'll droop unless folded to make a parabolic shape, why does this occur?

In an effort to understand how little I understand, I must ask a question which is in all likelihood extremely foolish. The defining difference between elements on the periodic table is the number of protons in each atom, and my question is how does the number of protons, neutrons, and electrons translate to physical properties such as 'wetness', durability, and structural integrity?

Some slight confusion on the part of electricity and the conversion to mechanical force; I believe I understand enough about circuits, current flow, capacitors and the like to know that side of the question, but what I don't see is how electricity is converted to large scale (relative to an electron) motion. For example, if I wanted to make an extremely basic fan, how would I go about doing it so that the electric potential stored inside the batteries powers the movement of the blades?

The ratios of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen inside the human body are fairly common knowledge, but what I'm looking for is a breakdown of where these (and other essential elements ... particularly potassium, magnesium, sodium, and calcium) are stored in the body. I'm looking for an elemental makeup (by mass) of the Bones, Kidney, Liver, Brain, Skin, Blood, Heart, Lungs, and Muscles. Anyone know where I might find one?

Would someone mind explaining a little bit about how an NNEMP works? The wiki page on EMPs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse) talks about how nuclear EMPs knock electrons out of the upper atmosphere and that these electrons are the source of technological damage (because they act too quickly for typical surge protectors to defend against and because (i'm assuming) the massive amount of electrons involved in nuclear EMPs). Why does knocking electrons out of essentially air, or low oxygen air anyway require a massive amount of energy?