Reynolds Metals

You are designing a new building and need to compare the amount of structural steel required to construct a be?

You are designing a new building and need to compare the amount of structural steel required to construct a beam and a support column. Which would require more steel, a cubical beam with a length of 25 ft, a width of 2 ft, and a height of 3 ft, or a cylindrical column with a height of 10 ft, and a radius of 2 ft?

Public Comments

1. In practice there are no solid cubical beams (and the beam described is not a cube anyway) or solid cylindrical columns. However, assuming they did exist, the beam would be 25x2x3 or 150 cubic feet while the column would be 10xpi x 2^2 or 125.6 cubic feet. So the "cubical" beam would require more steel.