I am here to explain MY understanding of Tension and Compression. I recently did a task about making my own bridge, I talked about compression. I got comments asking what this word meant, so here I am. I hope this helps.
EXPLANATION:
A load on a beam bridge places the top under COMPRESSION and the bottom on TENSION. We use strong materials like concrete and steel. COMPRESSION basically means something being squished down.If an elephant was on top of a bridge, the bridge would be compressed/squished by the animal. TENSION basically means something being stretched. If you were to stretch a rubber band, it would eventually break because of TENSION.
