1) The students designed and built a bridge made of balsa wood to achieve a high strength-to-weight ratio, inspired by triangular truss designs.
2) Their original design included many vertical and horizontal supports between the two triangular sides for strength, but they removed some supports to reduce weight.
3) While their modified bridge design was lighter, it caused the bridge to twist and collapse during testing. The bridge did not meet their goal of supporting a weight higher than its own.
1) The students designed and built a bridge made of balsa wood to achieve a high strength-to-weight ratio, inspired by triangular truss designs.
2) Their original design included many vertical and horizontal supports between the two triangular sides for strength, but they removed some supports to reduce weight.
3) While their modified bridge design was lighter, it caused the bridge to twist and collapse during testing. The bridge did not meet their goal of supporting a weight higher than its own.
1) The students designed and built a bridge made of balsa wood to achieve a high strength-to-weight ratio, inspired by triangular truss designs.
2) Their original design included many vertical and horizontal supports between the two triangular sides for strength, but they removed some supports to reduce weight.
3) While their modified bridge design was lighter, it caused the bridge to twist and collapse during testing. The bridge did not meet their goal of supporting a weight higher than its own.
Build a bridge with a high “weight to weight held” ratio
Max, Leah, and Alice
Washington Latin Public Charter School 5200 2nd St NW, Washington, DC 20011 Background: During this project, we used the domains of communicating within a scientific framework by using APA formatting, and developing and using models like our schematic designs. Our Our Design Process Conclusion: ● Our bridge was not able to reach a ratio of holding as research of the A truss1 inspired our design because the much weight as it weighed, so we didn’t reach our triangle is a very strong shape. The internal supports were Figure 3: Sides Figure 4: Basic Bridge objective. Figure 5: Final Product inspired by the Warren truss5 with verticals. ● Our design was very strong but it used a lot of wood and would have been very heavy. To limit this, we took Research objective: out some of the smaller vertical and horizontal cross When designing our bridge, we were trying to use somewhat beams as well as diagonals between the two sides as minimal material and still have a very strong structure, so that our see from the “front view.” These diagonals were meant bridge could hold a good amount of weight and still have a good to prevent the two sides from simultaneously strength to weight ratio. collapsing to the side. Materials: ● When we built our bridge we changed the design, Balsa wood, wood glue, Exacto Knife including taking away some horizontal pieces that We connected the sides, forming our connected the two sides. That proved to be a mistake, bridge! letting the bridge twist and fall, so our execution wasn’t This shows the the as good. Our Original Design (Figures 1 and 2) frames of the sides, with ● Our original design changed in several ways as we some of the supports built. We took out many of the side supports to make it Figure 1: Design view added. lighter, and then changed the base from a lattice to just an X. We also took out some pieces that connected We added more supports, the two sides above the base. connectors, and glue, and ● Our bridge did not do as well as we expected, but it got our final bridge. still succeeded. It got a ratio of 0.97 which was 3rd place out of 14 in the grade, but it would have done better if we had diagonal supports between the two Data: sides since it wouldn’t have collapsed as soon.
Figure 6: Data Table
Acknowledgements/References: This shows the top, front, and side view of what 1. amnbph. (2020, June 23). Part of the railroad truss bridge across river we planned our bridge to look like with [Photograph]. iStock. https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/part-of-the- measurements, including possible angles. We use the triangle to press against itself as the This table shows the data of our bridge. railroad-truss-bridge-across-river-kyiv-ukraine-gm1251267987- weight pulls down on the supports hanging 365108834 from the triangle. The lattice on the bottom is to distribute the weight to either end. 2. Law, J. (2017, April 24). What is a simple truss? Sciencing.com. Figure 7: How it Broke Retrieved February 15, 2022, from https://sciencing.com/simple-truss- 10018330.html Figure 1: 3D Bridge Design 3. North Carolina Department of Transportation, NCDOT. (2020, July 16). Truss bridge. North Carolina Department of Transportation. Retrieved February 15, 2022, from https://www.ncdot.gov/initiatives-policies/Transportation/bridges/ historic-bridges/bridge-types/Pages/truss.aspx 4. StructurePlanet (Producer). (2020). Making a Popsicle Bridge & Testing It! [Video]. Youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch? This shows the bridge tilting to one side, right before it broke. It fell v=xlwBmrf6240 because its two sides twisted and 5. Weebly. (n.d.). How bridges work [Illustration]. Weebly. broke apart. https://howbridgeswork.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/6/3/13630779/1830880 This is a 3D version of our bridge design. _orig.jpg