The design of foundations of structures such as buildings, bridges, and dams generally requires a knowledge of such factors as (a) the load that will be transmitted by the superstructure to the foudation system, (b) the requirments of the local building code, (c) the behavior and stress-related deformability of soils that will support the foudation system, and (d) the gwological conditions of the soil under consideration. To a foundation engineer, the last two factors are extremely important because they concern soil mechanics.