Originally posted by: malG
For small or medium (not large) breasted women, is there any benefit from wearing a bra?
Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Looking at it from the standpoint of growth biomechanics, one can easily see how a bra would decrease breast saggage.
Tissue (specifically skin and muscle, though this may be extendable to other tissues) generally has a specific average stress that it can sustain. If this stress is exceeded, the tissue grows to decrease the stress to its sustainable average level. If the average stress is lower than the tissue's sustainable limit, the tissue will shrink.
The idea behind the bra is to distribute the load from the breast weight across the shoulders and rib cage, effectively reducing the vertical load on the breast tissue. Since the breast skin has a smaller average load, it will also have a smaller average stress and will not grow (much). A perfect/ideal bra could theoretically distribute the load so that none of it was distributed to the breast tissue. However, Victoria's secret is that she doesn't want her boobs to shrink, so she makes imperfect bras.
Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Looking at it from the standpoint of growth biomechanics, one can easily see how a bra would decrease breast saggage.
Tissue (specifically skin and muscle, though this may be extendable to other tissues) generally has a specific average stress that it can sustain. If this stress is exceeded, the tissue grows to decrease the stress to its sustainable average level. If the average stress is lower than the tissue's sustainable limit, the tissue will shrink.
The idea behind the bra is to distribute the load from the breast weight across the shoulders and rib cage, effectively reducing the vertical load on the breast tissue. Since the breast skin has a smaller average load, it will also have a smaller average stress and will not grow (much). A perfect/ideal bra could theoretically distribute the load so that none of it was distributed to the breast tissue. However, Victoria's secret is that she doesn't want her boobs to shrink, so she makes imperfect bras.
Originally posted by: Tsunami982
Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Looking at it from the standpoint of growth biomechanics, one can easily see how a bra would decrease breast saggage.
Tissue (specifically skin and muscle, though this may be extendable to other tissues) generally has a specific average stress that it can sustain. If this stress is exceeded, the tissue grows to decrease the stress to its sustainable average level. If the average stress is lower than the tissue's sustainable limit, the tissue will shrink.
The idea behind the bra is to distribute the load from the breast weight across the shoulders and rib cage, effectively reducing the vertical load on the breast tissue. Since the breast skin has a smaller average load, it will also have a smaller average stress and will not grow (much). A perfect/ideal bra could theoretically distribute the load so that none of it was distributed to the breast tissue. However, Victoria's secret is that she doesn't want her boobs to shrink, so she makes imperfect bras.
wow and i thought i knew a lot about womens chests...
Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Looking at it from the standpoint of growth biomechanics, one can easily see how a bra would decrease breast saggage.
Tissue (specifically skin and muscle, though this may be extendable to other tissues) generally has a specific average stress that it can sustain. If this stress is exceeded, the tissue grows to decrease the stress to its sustainable average level. If the average stress is lower than the tissue's sustainable limit, the tissue will shrink.
The idea behind the bra is to distribute the load from the breast weight across the shoulders and rib cage, effectively reducing the vertical load on the breast tissue. Since the breast skin has a smaller average load, it will also have a smaller average stress and will not grow (much). A perfect/ideal bra could theoretically distribute the load so that none of it was distributed to the breast tissue. However, Victoria's secret is that she doesn't want her boobs to shrink, so she makes imperfect bras.
Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Looking at it from the standpoint of growth biomechanics, one can easily see how a bra would decrease breast saggage.
Tissue (specifically skin and muscle, though this may be extendable to other tissues) generally has a specific average stress that it can sustain. If this stress is exceeded, the tissue grows to decrease the stress to its sustainable average level. If the average stress is lower than the tissue's sustainable limit, the tissue will shrink.
The idea behind the bra is to distribute the load from the breast weight across the shoulders and rib cage, effectively reducing the vertical load on the breast tissue. Since the breast skin has a smaller average load, it will also have a smaller average stress and will not grow (much). A perfect/ideal bra could theoretically distribute the load so that none of it was distributed to the breast tissue. However, Victoria's secret is that she doesn't want her boobs to shrink, so she makes imperfect bras.
That is because you don't have two moment arms causing work to be done to oppose the force that they are exerting.Originally posted by: patentman
While I admit that this is an impressive analysis of the mechanical engineering aspects of bra design, somehow I doubt that the "idea" behind the bra was to redistribute the load. Although I ahve not actually googled the story behind the development of the bra, I'm almost 100% certain that it has nothing to do with mechanical engineering and everything to do with guys wanting to prop a woman's chest up for a better view... not that IO am complaining.
I'm not sure I suggested anywhere that the women who invented bras were in the know about such principles. In fact, I never mentioned anything about the history of bras. A quick Google search confirms that the bra was invented by women, for women. The word 'brassiere' apparently means 'support' in French.Originally posted by: patentman
While I admit that this is an impressive analysis of the mechanical engineering aspects of bra design, somehow I doubt that the "idea" behind the bra was to redistribute the load. Although I ahve not actually googled the story behind the development of the bra, I'm almost 100% certain that it has nothing to do with mechanical engineering and everything to do with guys wanting to prop a woman's chest up for a better view... not that IO am complaining.