Designing for a Strong Strength to Weight Ratio, and Staying Light

Catherine Paci, Liam Anglin, Justine Thomas

5200 2nd St NW, Washington, DC 20011, Honors Physics
Figure 9
Objective: Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6
Our objective for this project was to
build a bridge that could span a 25cm
gap, was at last 20cm tall, and was at
most 8cm wide.

Score Sheet
Materials: Figure 7 shows the score sheet. It got
The materials we used for this project The beginning of The two sides of The final bridge, we
added diagnols to 0.88 for the strength to weight ratio.
were the same materials everybody else the project, we are the bridge, they
even out the weight There’s the weight in the corner (7.91g)
who worked on bridges used. They were cuting the balsa are meant to be distribution, and we
wood we used to identical and we added diagnols to and the planned weight before the
apart of the challenge of building bridges make the bridge have yet to put the bottom of the section broke off (8.83g).
1. Balsa Wood into usuble square where the
them together bucket will hang Figure 11
2. Wood Glue (Gorilla company) proportion Figure 10

The Early Break:

Original design, figures 1, 2, 3
From the side
From above
Figures 1 & 2 show the bridge from the
side, while figure 3 shows it from above.
None of these are to scale.
A few days before the bride was set to break, one triangular end The bridge right before it breaks The broken bridge
section was broken off. This weakened our bride by lowering the
places the weight could be dispersed, and possibly weakening the
remaining wood. Conclusion:
● Bridge design was successfully translated
This had one upside. The bride was lightened to just barely under to a usable structure
8 grams, and that made our strength to weight ratio higher, since ● The bridge was slightly broken (due to an
ther was less weight. unknown accident)
Figure 8
Now the questions arises ● Bridge still functioned! (althought not the
Figure 7
Would our bridge have been its greatest possible extent)
successful had it not been ● Bridge held a
broken? "Designing a Strong Bridge." Science Projects, www.scienceprojects.org/
designing-a-istrong-bridge/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2023
Our answer is Yes! We were very "Truss Bridges." NCDOT,
proud of our bridge and felt that we www.ncdot.gov/initiatives-policies/Transportation/
Both shows images of our broken bridge bridges/historic-bridges/bridge-types/Pages/truss.aspx. Accessed 21
would do well on breaking day! Mar.
2023.