huangyhg

asce civil engineering magazine
i don't know if anyone happened to read any of the letters to the editor in the october edition (pg#8). in short the article was about "dummy" members that the author felt were displayed incorrectly on an elevation drawing.
my question is about a comment the author made regarding "dummy" members in general. he said they were included in suspended truss bridges to enabable hand calculations before computers. how do they enable hand calculations? can a suspended truss bridge not be analyzed as an ideal truss without these members?
i am not a bridge engineer just interested in how calculations were historically done.
thanks in advance.

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