Spaghetti Building Activity

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

1. It must hold as many large galvanized washers in a single, uniform stack, on a spaghetti platform as far away horizontally from the edge of the desk as possible.

2. The structure must be built on a wood base provided by Mr. Jamieson. You may only use half the surface. The other half will be for clamping to the desk. Your structure cannot contact any part of the desk.

3. It must be made of dry pasta (any shape) and hot glue, and cannot exceed 100 grams in mass, including the wood base.

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 washers must be added one-at-time at Mr. J’s direction.

6. OPTIONAL: Your structure may incorporate a counterweight of up to 200 g. The counterweight must be free-hanging and must be placed on your structure before the contest starts. Its mass does not count as part of your score.

7. If the structure breaks or the washers fall off, the score will be calculated based on the number of washers held before the last one was added.

The bridge will be tested and scored on the following basis:

Score = 70 points + 5 points + up to 25 points

for participation for criteria #6 for engineering quality

Engineering quality is basically the amount of washers the structure can support, and how far away from the table they can be supported, compared to the mass of the structure itself.

Engineering Quality Score =

(# washers)(lever in cm)² / mass of structure (g)