Bridge Project
I think the bridge project was a really fun project to work on during class. We had time to get away from the average class work and do something fun. We got to learn how bridges work and apart from that we got to experiment which bridges works the best. In the end we got to break the bridges to which was fun to see and we got to see the best bridge win and how. It’s really fun project.
Each bridge is different, which means different loads are distributed by the type of bridge you make. All compression is forced on the middle of the bridge, but distributed to the support beam then to the arch you make. It’s a cycle from the middle to the bottom then to the support beams then to the top and back to the middle. Enough compression and tension will make the bridge break.
I think the reason why is because a good bridge has to been light, but also carry a good amount of weight. It has to be the most resourceful. Mange if you were project manger of a bridge being constructed, you want to build the bridge with a low budget as possible, but also make the bridge strong enough to support cars. This is exactly what we did, we just used weight.
Our bridge weight 101.3 grams and held 73 pounds, our ratio was 329. I say that a good amount of weight, not the best bridge, but good enough. We wanted to a square bridge to make the entire load distribute evenly as possible. We also a model of the bridge on Google images that held a lot of weight. I think the reason why it held that much was because we were kind of in a rush to finish and didn’t really glue that well. The bridge was uneven in end, and it needed to have more middle beams to support the weight. If I had another chance I would try to improve all that.
