ABSTRACT
Soils consist of solid grains and water, and loads on foundations or on walls will arise from combinations of the stresses in the skeleton of soil grains and in the pore water. If there is no soil the normal stress on the hull of a ship is equal to the water pressure. If there is no water the stress on the bottom of a sugar basin arises from the weight of the dry sugar. The question then arises as to what combinations of the stresses in the skeleton of the grains and in the pore water determine the overall soil behaviour. To examine this we will look at the stresses and water pressures in the ground.
