🔍 Key Concepts

• How to distribute total weight based on transverse moment (TM) and longitudinal moment (LM) when the unit is elevated on three legs • Relationship between total vertical reaction and individual leg reactions on a three‑leg jack‑up (forward, aft‑port, aft‑starboard) • Sign convention for moments: what a negative TM implies about which side (port or starboard) is more heavily loaded

💭 Think About

• First, think about how many legs are sharing the total weight and what the sum of all leg reactions must equal • Next, consider how LM and TM are used as: Moment = (Reaction at a leg) × (its horizontal lever arm) and how you can write simultaneous equations for the three unknown leg reactions • Ask yourself: with a negative TM, should the port leg reaction be larger or smaller than the starboard leg reaction, and how does that help you choose between the answer options that are relatively close together

✅ Before You Answer

• Verify that the sum of all leg reactions equals 14,150 kips (overall vertical equilibrium) • Check that the leg reactions you infer produce the given LM = 1,712,150 ft‑kips and TM = -9,905 ft‑kips when multiplied by the correct leg spacings • Confirm that your chosen port leg reaction is consistent with a negative transverse moment (i.e., loading shifted toward the appropriate side)