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Challenge:
Challenge:
- Drop a water balloon onto a bed of nails without it breaking from the highest possible height
- Increase the height by two feet after each successful drop
Materials:
Materials:
- 500 drinking straws
- 300" of transparent tape (1 roll)
- 5 rubber bands size 84
- 10 rubber bands size 18
- 2 paper sheets, letter size
- 25 wood coffee stirrers
- 4 additional balloons
- nuts and bolts
Constraints:
Constraints:
- tape, paper sheets, and rubber bands can not touch the balloon before the drop
- structure can not be larger than a 10" x 10" x 10" cube before the drop
- structure must have four 1.3" diameter windows surrounding the balloon
Trials
Trials
Trial One (The Honeycomb):
Trial One (The Honeycomb):
- Honeycomb design for the base with measured 2-inch straws
- Miniature raft on top to keep balloon in place
- Straws filled with nuts and bolts on the sides to weigh the structure down
- Completed 2-foot drop but broke balloon on 4-foot drop
Trial Two (The Beehive):
Trial Two (The Beehive):
- Added wings to the structure on the raft to prevent it from turning on its side/popping the balloon after impact
- Replaced the straws with nuts/bolts with paper bags to hold more weight
- Completed 4-foot drop but broke balloon on 6-foot drop
Trial Three (The Raft):
Trial Three (The Raft):
- (Had more straws than pictured in the wings)
- Removed honeycomb base because that was the problem
- Weighed down with paper bags of nuts/bolts
- Used rubber bands and tape to secure all components
Balloon fastened with straws/double sided tape
Pugh Chart
Pugh Chart
Building Process:
Building Process:
- Spent first 20 minutes designing and talking about pros/cons
- Combined ideas
- Divided the work into pairs
- Pieced the structure together
- Made last tweaks as a group before testing out
- Discussed the issues after
- Redesigned
The Result:
The Result:
- Successfully dropped from 4 feet
- Tried at 6 feet → there was too much pressure on the balloon + it popped
- Changes: and replaced the straws that were holding the balloon with double sided non-sticky tape → the balloon popped right away
- Overall, the structure was stable but the pressure was too much for the balloon
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