You are to build a bridge of pasta 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. Smith) can be accessed, and the hook assembly must be at the mid-point of the bridge.

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 = 75 points for participation + 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)