On Mohr's Circle

Abstract

In the construction of Mohr's circle, clockwise shear is taken as positive instead of negative since otherwise it does not lead to consistency between the physical plane and Mohr's circle plane. Alternatively, taking anticlockwise shear positive and to make rotation consistent, the shear stress axis is taken pointing downwards which appears rather odd. A simple way to change the axes has been suggested to eliminate this oddity and make the physical plane and Mohr's circle plane consistent in every respect.