Imagine That You Are Helping Out with the Stage Design

Multiple Choice

Imagine that you are helping out with the stage design for an amateur theatrical performance. You have to support a heavy set of lights on the end of a wooden plank. The plank is 3 m long, 1 cm thick and 10 cm wide. One end of the plank will be bolted to a bracket on the theatre wall, and the plank will extend horizontally over the stage, with the lamps screwed onto the end. You are worried that the weight of the lights might bend the plank too much and cause it to break. Initially you set up the plank in a flat orientation (with the width horizontal) , and the tip bent by 5 cm when weighed down, which was too much. You are considering rotating the plank by 90° (so the width is vertical) . How much would you expect the tip to bend in this orientation?

A) 5 cm.
B) 0.5 cm.
C) 0.05 cm.
D) 50 cm.
E) 1.0 cm.