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The objective and requirements
The objective and requirements
The objective of this project was to create a bridge that had at least a span of two feet. The bridge was to have a good strength to weight ratio, meaning you shouldn't create a design that uses and unnecessary number of materials. To build the bridge, you had popsicle sticks, hot glue, and wood glue. This project would be done individually. Before building the bridge, you had to make a virtual version on a program called West Point Bridge Design and then you had to scale it on AutoCAD.
West Point Bridge Design
West Point Bridge Design
Once we had the 5 different sketches of bridge designs that we wanted to use we remade them into a program called West Point Bridge Design. The reason for doing that is because by putting the designs in that program we could see where the bridge would fail and where the most tension and compression would be on the bridge so that you could tweak your design to make it the best it could be.
My original Designs
My original Designs
Once I uploaded my designs, I tested them all to see which ones would work and which designs would fail by just adding weight to it. It turns out that all of my first designs completely failed. Some not as much as others but they still failed. I ended up going with my third design.
This was my third bridge design that I chose to tweek and fix so that weight could actually be put on it. Screenshot was taken December 4, 2020.
Problems with the chosen design
Problems with the chosen design
Some of the problems with this design was that first of all there was a lot of compression being directed to the right side, and some of the beams couldn't handle that. Second of all the bridge used a lot of sticks and I had to try and bring that number of sticks down, so I didn't go over the maximum number.
Design Improvements
Design Improvements
To improve the design, I put half of the bridges design under where it would have been held up at. I also compacted the bridge more so that it would take up less materials to build. Something else I did was that I alternated the way some of the sticks would be facing because by doing that it put less tension and compression of other parts of the bridge.
STEM 1 Bridge 2020-Layout1.pdfThis is the final design that I went with and built. This picture was taken after the bridge had been scaled in AutoCAD and the virtual Popsicle sticks were placed.Screenshot was taken December 22, 2020.
This is a picture to show where the tension and compression forces would act at on the bridge. The red is compression and the blue is tension. The picture also shows where I thought the bridge would break at. This picture was taken by T. Bray January 23, 2021.
Some basic facts and measurements of the bridge
Some basic facts and measurements of the bridge
It weighed about 8.9 oz
It used up a total of 127 popsicle sticks
It needs to hold up 56 pounds (which is 100 times its weight).
It only held about 18 pounds (32 times its weight).
These are both pictures of the bridge once it was fully built.
Photos were taken by T. Bray
January 5, 2021.
BrayBridge.mp4This is a video of the actual breaking of the bridge. Video was taken by John Setaro January 11, 2021
The Results
The Results
The bridge was supposed to be able to hold 100 times its own weight, 56 pounds. The bridge only wound up holding 32 times its own weight, breaking at 18 pounds.
This was an after picture of the bridge once it broke. The bridge broke in basically the same spot that I predicted.
Picture by John Setaro January 11, 2021.
Picture by John Setaro January 11, 2021.
How this relates to math
How this relates to math
This relates to math because it requires you to make precise measurements so that everything on the bridge fit together perfectly. You also had to be able to keep count of hoe many popsicles stick you had. Then toward the end of the project, the weight of the bridge and how much it held had to be calculated.
Reflection
Reflection
This project was executed great because it challenged your creativity. I showed me how to use sites like West Point Bridge design and AutoCAD. I liked having to create my own bridge from scratch. I really enjoyed laying out the popsicle sticks and actually constructing the bridge. Overall, I really liked this project. Although the bridge may not have held as much as I want to, that's what made the project so challenging and fun to do.
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