What is shear?

Shear is when something gets pushed from one side so it slides or slants, like a stack of cards being shifted.

Imagine you have a deck of playing cards neatly stacked on a table. Now, if you push the top card to the right while keeping the bottom card in place, the whole stack starts to slant, it's not straight anymore. That’s shear in action!

Think about a bookshelf that’s tall and full of books. If you gently push one side of the shelf forward, the books start to slide out, they’re no longer all lined up straight. This sliding is also shear, just like with your cards.

You can feel shear when you push on something and it doesn’t just move forward but twists or slants. It's the same idea whether you're moving a card stack, a bookshelf, or even the ground during an earthquake!

So next time you slide a book out of a shelf, or shift a card pile, remember: that’s shear happening right in front of you!