We are going to attempt a fun and exciting assignment that involves building and testing a bridge. Often when designing structures, there are two very important requirements:
to carry the most weight possible
to be as light as possible
This project will introduce these design trade-offs to you.
This is a challenging project that deals with one of the problems associated with any product sold in the world -- assembly. One of the specifications a design engineer must consider is how much a product will cost when it reaches the salesroom floor. Often, a very large portion of the cost is due to the assembly time. If a product is designed with the factory worker in mind and can be assembled at a rapid rate, the company can retail its product at a substantial discount.