Spaghetti Bridge Contest

You are to build a bridge of spaghetti that meets the following criteria:

1. It must span a distance of 50.0 cm between two tables. Note that your bridge must therefore be longer than 50.0 cm, or it will fall through the gap.

2. The foot of the bridge cannot attach to the table in any way and must only rest on the surface of the table.

3. It must be made of dry pasta (any shape) and any kind of glue, and cannot exceed 300 grams in mass.

4. The pasta may not be laminated together with glue (i.e. Don’t try to make plywood out of lasagna!). It can only be spot-glued together.

5. The bridge must have a deck from which a hook assembly (available from Mr. J for a small deposit) can be accessed, and the hook assembly must be at the mid-point of the car deck.

6. The bridge deck should be able to accommodate a small “Hot-Wheels” type toy car from end to end along the bridge deck.

Any bridge that does not meet any of criteria 1 through 5 will be excluded from the point scoring. The bridge will be tested and scored on the following basis:

Score = 70 points for participation + 5 points for holding a toy car + up to 25 points for strength ratio

Strength ratio is basically the amount of mass the bridge can support compared to the mass of the bridge itself. A good bridge can support a great deal of weight without being heavy itself.

Strength Ratio Score = 0.25(total mass held including itself)/(mass of bridge)

Event Day:

(You can put your bridge in my office for safekeeping until the competition)

I will need help to do the following jobs:

Moving tables and chairs away from the rear of the room.

Setting up the testing area.

Filling the water bucket.

Recording the information in the spreadsheet.

Calculating the mass of water in the bucket.

Clean up afterwards.

You must weigh your bridge to the nearest gram, and you must have someone else independently confirm the mass of your bridge. After that, give your name and the mass of your bridge to the person entering information into the scoring spreadsheet.

At your turn, place your bridge on the supports and take a picture of it with a toy car on it. I will load it by filling a bucket with water while it is hanging from your hook. When it breaks, I will measure the amount of water, and my assistant will calculate the mass held by your bridge. Make sure that number is recorded into the spreadsheet. Your mark will be instantly calculated by the formulae embedded in the spreadsheet. If there are any errors, please tell me right away.

Break the pasta away from the hook assembly and return it to me. If you do, you will get your deposit money back.