What is Structural Analysis?

Question

I am taking the GACE Teacher Education Test and I have a few topics that i am unclear on.

Answer 1

Ummm...yeah...well the first answer is WAY off LOL. You aren't posting this in the engineering section. In the field of education:

Structuralism, from which Structural Analysis derives, is the methodological principle that human culture is made up of systems in which a change in any element produces changes in the others. Four basic types of theoretical or critical activities have been regarded as structuralist: the use of language as a structural model, the search for universal functions or actions in texts, the explanation of how meaning is possible, and the post-structuralist denial of objective meaning. In the field of literature, in which Structuralism and Post-Structuralism have gained particular importance, Structuralism seeks to explain the structures underlying literary texts either in terms of a grammar modeled on that of language or in terms of Ferdinand de Saussure's principle that the meaning of each word depends on its place in the total system of language.

The complete description can be seen here:
http://fiat.gslis.utexas.edu/~palmquis/courses/structural.htm

Answer 2

Structural analysis comprises the set of physical laws and mathematics required to study and predict the behavior of structures. The subjects of structural analysis are engineering artifacts whose integrity is judged largely based upon their ability to withstand loads; they commonly include buildings, bridges, aircraft, and ships. Structural analysis incorporates the fields of mechanics and dynamics as well as the many failure theories. From a theoretical perspective the primary goal of structural analysis is the computation of deformations, internal forces, and stresses. In practice, structural analysis can be viewed more abstractly as a method to drive the engineering design process or prove the soundness of a design without a dependence on directly testing it.