Which Pattern of Lego’s Can Hold the Most Weight?

Question

Which pattern of Lego’s can hold the most weight?

Hypothesis

The structure that has the most blocks in the middle of its structure will be able to hold the most weight because it will be thicker there, making it easy to hold a lot.

Procedure

• 1. Gather all the different kinds Lego’s needed

  2. Build a different structure each time. Has to be 5 in x 1 in x 3 in. Some different patterns are like two on top of each other, or two bricks next to each other and one on top connecting the two. These were just two examples.

  3. Weigh the structure.

  4. Then I’ll test how much weight each can hold. I’ll do this by tying string to a cup of water that’s being held by the LEGO structure.

1. Repeat (2) times for each of the 4 structures.

Abstract

Most states and cities across the United States have waterways in between them. How would it be possible for a car to get across a humongous body of water? In the 1st century AD, the Romans built many different types of bridges. These bridges however weren’t very big. They were made of uncemented granite, and each block was about 8 tons! In modern society, there are about 605,000 bridges in the United States. For the past couple years, I’ve wondered how we humans make such immense bridges that can hold so much weight. For this year’s science fair, I decided to test which pattern of Lego’s can hold the most weight. Out of 4 totally different structures, I predicted that the structure that has the most blocks in the center will be able to hold the most weight. I believed this because it will be thicker there, making it more supportive.

I tested 4 totally different Lego structures that I built. “Patterns” has many spaces in between the connecting Legos. “Levels” is a couple of Lego floors stacked together. “Solid” is just simply, solid Lego. “Hollow” is an enclosed structure with a hollow inside. Each structure is 5x1x3 inches because I wanted to make it an equal test. In order to find out how much weight each Lego structure could hold, I weighed it using water. I set up a 5 foot, wooden tower that had the Lego structure at the top. Hanging down from the Lego, I tied fishing line through the lego which had bags of water hanging from the fishing line. Of course there was going to be a lot of water on the ground, so I laid out towels to absorb the leftover water. After I set up all of that, I was basically ready to test.

After testing each of the 4 structures 2 times, the results were very alarming. The Lego structure named “Patterns” held the least amount of water with an average of 3.74 kg. “Hollow” held a whopping 9.02 kg of water which was the third best. Holding 17.19 kg of water, “Levels” held the second largest amount of water. In first place, “Solid” retained 21.17 kg of water.

As you can tell, my hypothesis was proven correct. This statement is true because I predicted that the bridge with the most support in the middle would be the most successful. “Solid” which is the bridge that I predicted, proved my hypothesis to be correct. My project was successful because there was a clear winner between the four structures. During my experiment, there were some variables that I had to keep in mind. Some being how I tied fishing line to structure, increments of water put in bags, and how tight were Lego’s packed together. Even though my project was done very well, there is always something I can do to improve. If I tested each structure an extra two times, it would have made my results more accurate. Overall, this project was extremely interesting and outstanding to be a part of.

Conclusion

All in all, my hypothesis was proven to be correct. This is true because I originally predicted that the bridge with the most support in the middle would be the most successful. “Solid” which is the bridge that I predicted, proved my hypothesis to be correct. My project was successful because there was a clear winner between the four structures. When pursuing my experiment, there were some variables that I had to keep in mind. A couple were how I tied fishing line to structure, increments of water put in bags, and how tight were Lego’s packed together. Even though my project was done extremely well, there is always something I can do to improve on my project. If I tested each structure an extra two or three times, it would have made my results more accurate. To conclude, my experiment was informational and interesting to learn about!