Balsa Wood Bridge

Background: Maisie Sommer, Eliza Lowenfish, Abbey Hawkinson

IIB- We considered that the triangles in our 5200 2nd ST NW Washington, DC
bridge might be too big with no support, so
we added extra wood in the middle of the Data:
triangles in order to reinforce them Design process : Should include as a minimum the score
VIB- We looked at our bridge, and searched First we created our schematic design (figure 2) by sheet, but should also include photos or
for places where there was less support, calculating the angles of our triangles and the length of the video of the final product in action. With
because we knew that that would make the wood pieces. Then we started cutting wood according to the figure labels and brief descriptions with each
bridge less strong schematic design and eventually started glueing one side, photo
IVA- We made a to-scale schematic design then the connecting pieces (seen in figure 1). Finally we
for our bridge on paper, so we were able to added the second side.
make our bridge an exact copy of the design
We used our research because we saw the
Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3
k-truss and inspired that.
Our research objective was to build a bridge
that had enough structural integrity to be able
to have a 1:1 ratio of weight held (lbs) to weight
of our bridge (g)

Materials:
● Balsa wood sticks
● Wood glue Conclusion:
● Toothpicks ● Yes, we were able to get more
● Pencil and Paper than a 1:1 ratio in weight held to
● Exacto Knife weight of bridge
Before attaching Glueing the cut ● Our schematic design wasn’t very
Right after our
Schematic design: the other side of wood pieces accurate because there were a lot
bridge breaking
the bridge together. of uneven joints
● Our schematic design and final
design were pretty similar, other
than the small diagonal joints

Acknowledgements/references:
Bridge shape inspiration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbOlZC
94YUQ
Joint inspiration
https://www.acsupplyco.com/three-simple-a
nd-effective-balsa-wood-bridge-designs