Building a bridge...sorta.

[alphatarget1]

Damn I totally missed this! <3 civil engineering.

You have to optimize between weight and stiffness. stiffness is governed by geometry, material property and in this case, span length. Geometry is the moment of inertia blah blah blah.

grrrr i wish i could've read this earlier

 

[DrPizza]

btw, thanks for this project... I'm going to use it in my physics class as a research project for students.
I know that I would have hated being assigned a 5 page paper on something,
so rather than assign a paper on some related topic, I'll have the students do a little research on building bridges and try to turn this into a more fun project.

This, and building mousetrap powered cars are two great ideas I gained from this forum... thanks to all who helped

 

[byosys]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

I know that I would have hated being assigned a 5 page paper on something,
so rather than assign a paper on some related topic, I'll have the students do a little research on building bridges and try to turn this into a more fun project.

So just assign the project and a 5 page paper :evil:

In all seriousness, it was a good project. We spend a total of 3 classes (45 min each) building designs then our double peroid (lab day, 1:45 min) testing them. Just be sure to have enough materials for your students to work with. I know we were short on metal siding (thanks to my WW design) and used just about all the wood pieces our teach brought in. That, and don't let the kids epoxy stuff alone. Even highschoolers can make a mess of it. (Don't ask.)

Finally if you do assign it, make sure any designs you enter arn't beaten by your students. I know my current teacher is slightly embaresed that he lost to his own student (twice). Of course, I'm not making it any easier for him, but thats besides the point. Fun project and I did do some learning.