Question for someone who has been through the Thaddeus lectures!
I am trying to grasp shear and moment diagram concepts and am understanding things for the most part. My questions have to do with the conceptual diagrams he explains in workbook page 23.
In question 1 on the left (see below), he states greatest maximum shear would be in diagram B (continuous beam), not diagram A (2 simply supported beams). Can someone explain why the center supports/loads have more shear than the outer edges? This would also be the case in the lower continuous beam diagrams with 4-5 supports, but I'm not quite understanding why.
Second question is for the diagrams on the right side of the page, showing concentrated/uniform loads on either simply supported or fixed supports. Again, same question about maximum shear. How can one assume without numbers that B (fixed ends, concentrated load) has greatest shear? How is this different than reading the maximum moment, which is you can look at as max deflection?
Please let me know if anyone can help explain this in simple terms -- I may be overthinking this, but it would be good to know conceptually for the exam. Thank you!!