Man nearly falls off roof after ladder buckles - GIF

[tonyfoale]

I had to look up Euler.

Then you probably got a lot of info about his achievements in mathematics. Engineers know him for providing the understanding of critical buckling loads.

Fc = pi^2 *E*I/(K*L)^2 E,I and L have their usual meanings, K is a factor between 0.5 and 2 depending on the end fixations. This gives the maximum load that a slender column can support without buckling under. Regardless of how strong the material is.