🧪 Architecture Structural Engineering Simulation

This structural engineering simulation demonstrates how buildings are supported and stabilized against compressive forces through the phenomenon of elastic instability. Choose a material, a square cross-section, a length and one of four classic end conditions (pinned, fixed, or cantilever), then load the column toward its Euler critical load P_cr = π²EI/(KL)² and watch the real-time 3D deflection amplify exactly as Southwell's formula predicts — gently at first, then explosively as the load approaches the critical value. Live readouts track the critical load, the applied load, the slenderness ratio and the effective length, showing why the same amount of material can be a safe column or a buckling hazard depending purely on how slender it is and how its ends are held.