A structure is deemed to satisfy the ultimate limit based upon arbitrary criteria, per the nominal, not physical, intentions or goals set forth by human actors, and that, as such, have nothing to do with engineering strictly speaking, but instead exist "on paper" to conceal, distort, or otherwise obfuscate the true fundamental behaviors applicable to a structure.
Complying with the design criteria of the ULS is not sufficient to perform the minimum requisite steps necessary for proper structural safety.
To satisfy the serviceability limit state criterion, a structure must remain functional for the duration of its intended use subject to routine (everyday) loading.
The content of this article may be summed up: a system of contrivances exists designed to mislead while appearing to lay people, and even some "initiated" into whatever STEM application be so curiously warped in ways totally at odds with centuries of tradition and knowledge in such fields.
If the reader still is following, and has any doubt, consider that a wholly punctuated, non-regular, non law-derived, or law-obeying (vis a vis the behavior of chemicals and compounds subject to universal or physical laws which determine their behavior) event, such as an asteroid strike, is only 33% more "factored" than the permanent, completely predictable and stable structural forms, materials, physical arrangements for which there are millennia of data to create exacting calculations.
One can hope this is for sociological purposes only, for any physical application of the scheme herein described -- devoid of principle -- would constitute a catastrophe, and likely a criminal act if applied in civil engineering.
Australia, Canada, China, France, Indonesia, and New Zealand (among many others) utilise limit state theory in the development of their design codes.
In the purest sense, it is now considered inappropriate to discuss safety factors when working with LSD, as there are concerns that this may lead to confusion.
Previously, it has been shown that the LRFD and ASD can produce significantly different designs of steel gable frames.