When Professor Richard von Mises found the time, away from going flying and undertaking the nascent study of aerodynamics, to “imagineer” his stress criterion for evaluating the strength of components with respect to plastic deformation, he can hardly have imagined tha the’d also created a near universal indicator of quality in 21st century academic papers.

Time after time after time, academic papers feature plots of the venerable Austro-Hungarian’s stress criterion; sometimes –on occasion, it has to be said–where it’s actually the right thing to do. But I’d have thought that of all the issues likely to afflict my femur, tibia or other skeletal components, yielding and subsequent permanent deformation as a result of overloading and material plasticity aren’t at the top of the list of things I need to worry about. Even at 61. Though never say never, right?

This article appeared in the July 2025 Issue of BENCHMARK.