Talk:Nonlinear finite elements/Axially loaded bar

The last paragraph states that "this is tedious since we have to repeat the process for every point in the bar".

I don't think this is true like that, i.e. we can just pick one point 'x' that stands for all points. Then $\mathbf {f} _{x}=\mathbf {R} +\int _{x}^{L}\mathbf {q} (\mathbf {x'} )~dx'=\mathbf {R} +\int _{x}^{L}a\mathbf {x'} ~dx'=\mathbf {R} +\left[{\frac {a}{2}}\mathbf {x'} ^{2}\right]=\mathbf {R} +{\frac {aL^{2}}{2}}-{\frac {a\mathbf {x} ^{2}}{2}}=\mathbf {R} +{\frac {a(L^{2}-\mathbf {x} ^{2})}{2}}$

And then go from there?

If the steps after this one become "tedious" then maybe that should be stated like that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thuldai (talk • contribs) 09:06, 27 February 2008 (UTC)