"j walker" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 21:47:14 -0500, j walker wrote:

I am beginning to wish I hadn't asked the original question. Somebody
out there needs to quit reading between the lines and assuming what
they don't know.

Well, when the details are missing, some assumptions are likely going to
have to be made to develop a reasonably-complete answer.

I gave a brief view of the project simply because I thought perhaps I
had confused someone attempting to help.

Looking back I should have merely ignored that and left well enough
alone

OR

given a detailed word picture of the platform as it has existed for
several years,

That probably would have been helpful

complete with the 3 X 4 angle braces on all sides but
one and that one being reinforced with a 4X4X3/8 el piece of steel. I
probably should have mentioned that the 1100 gallon capacity will only
rarely be reached and only by manual override and that normally the
limit is 800 gallons at which time the water flows out the overflow
pipe. And finally it stands alone on the farm, filled by a windmill
and should a catastrophe occur it isn't likely to hurt anyone. And
just in case someone worries about the tank sinking in the ground
please be advised that it sits proudly on 8 inches of 4000 psi
concrete and the soil under the concrete was properly prepared.

I am a farmer not an engineer but I am not an idiot about how to build
something and have it stand up for a while.

Well, you're talking about a non-trivial amount of load and not everybody
(even farmers) is prepared to take the amount of static loads, dynamic
loads, shear stresses, beam deflections, etc into account when designing a
structure. Since your original question, which dealt with deflection of a
beam, involves (relatively) elementary structural analysis, someone in the
know about engineering of a structure is likely to assume the worst which is
that you have little to no knowledge in the area.

Good luck with whatever you end up with.

todd