The document discusses concepts of stress, including:
1. Stress is defined as the force per unit area acting on a surface or section. There are two main types: normal stress and shear stress.
2. To determine if a structure can safely support a load, both the internal forces and the material properties must be considered.
3. Allowable stress values lower than the actual failure stress are used in design, with factors of safety typically between 1-3 depending on the application. This ensures the structure does not fail under expected loading conditions.