The magnitude of the principal stresses are the abscissas of the points C and E (Figure 6) where the circle intersects the σ σ n -axis. The magnitude of the major principal stress σ σ 1 is always the greatest absolute value of the abscissa of any of these two points. Likewise, the magnitude of the minor principal stress σ σ 2 is always the lowest absolute value of the abscissa of these two points. As expected, the ordinates of these two points are zero, corresponding to the magnitude of the shear stress components on the principal planes. Alternatively, the values of the principal stresses can be found by