Consider a uniform beam that is supported by 3 pivots that are the same distance from each other (shown below). What will the normal force exerted by each pivot be?
The situation seemed rather paradoxical to me because depending on the order you place the pivots in the normal force exerted by each pivot will be different.
For instance, in (1), I first place in the 2 pivots on the sides, and then the one in the centre. Logically, the final weight will be borne entirely by the 2 pivots on the side... right? Since the 2 systems (the rod and 2 pivots, and the 3rd pivot) are entirely stable on their own, and there is no need for the weight to redistribute.
But I can also place in the centre pivot first, and then the side pivots (2) and then I get a different distribution of weight!
In fact I think the solution can be anything that looks like the situation in (3).
But of course, we can do the experiment in real life, and swap the pivots with mass balances, and each time we perform the experiment we can expect to get the same reading. So what is going on? Is there some missing information in the reasoning above that leads to the solution being indeterminate?