The Moment Distribution Method

It is a characteristic of the structural analysis problem that most formulations lead to the need to solve a set of simultaneous equations. Without using a computer or programmable calculator, solving four or more equations is a tedious, if not daunting, task that most people would prefer to avoid. The general basis of the matrix stiffness method as presented in earlier chapters was well understood prior to the development of the digital computer, so that analysts were left with having to find the solution to a large number of simultaneous equations by hand calculation, or to avoid them.