The effects of earthquakes on buildings with a flexible first story

The title of this paper is a misnomer, purposely selected to indicate the reason for its preparation rather than its contents. It is not proposed to consider the effects of the extremely complex motions of earthquakes on such a complex structure as the ordinary building, but rather to idealize both the motion and the structure in order to obtain some basic concepts which may perhaps have bearing on the general topic suggested by the title. The scope of the paper then will be limited to a consideration of but one bent of a building subjected to established simple harmonic motion