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In this paper, we analyze the motion of a falling Slinky, starting from rest and initially suspended from one of its ends. It is well-known that under these conditions, the Slinky moves in an unusual way: its lower end remains at rest until the upper end collides with it - as if gravity were being challenged! We conducted a literature review and identified that the most widely disseminated explanation for this levitation phenomenon of the Slinky's base during the Slinky's fall relies on the concept of information (and does not seem to please many). We show that such a phenomenon can be explained - and reproduced through a computer simulation using a simple model - without the notion that "there is a finite time for the information that the Slinky was released at its top to reach its bottom". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New structural systems in civil construction are always emerging, and therefore a performance evaluation is necessary. For this evaluation, laboratory tests are necessary, but, due to the scarcity of research centers, numerical simulations have emerged as an alternative. For better reliability in the results obtained in the simulation, a mesh test is necessary, verifying the influence of the results. In this paper, the analysis of are two main types of mesh (tetrahedral and hexahedral) and several possible discretization sizes, aiming to evaluate the parameters in a numerical simulation of a specimen requested with 3-point static bending. Two mesh types and three sizes (1mm, 5mm and 10mm) were adopted. Through the obtained results, it can be reached that the tetrahedral mesh obtained better results. It was also possible to achieve that the mesh size did not change the results of stresses and displacements in the contour of the part, only influencing the results of stresses in the interior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]