The method is particularly useful for field tests of structures that are likely to be damaged by applying loads near the critical load and beyond, such as reinforced concrete columns or advanced composite materials. The method can also minimize parasitic effects in experiments and give values that are closer to the theoretically expected values. For example, in a real experiment setup it is impossible to reproduce any theoretical boundary condition perfectly. Additionally, the results of compressive tests can be very sensitive to imperfections and the actual boundary conditions. Therefore, the measured critical load during the experiment can be very different from what is predicted.