Check on that hot glue requirement. That stuff
suuuuuucks for structural rigidity. Elmer's Wood Glue: Awesome.
And unlimited toothpicks? You could hold up a car.
I had a similar project in high school, except that we had popsicle sticks. There was a "limit" on the # of sticks we could use, but it was kind of flexible, and not really enforced. My group was one of the two groups in the class (out of around 10 groups total) that genuinely made an attempt to make something. I don't remember what it held, but it was well over 100lbs, across a span of at least 3 feet. We ran out of weights, so everyone started setting textbooks on the platform until the bridge catastrophically failed.
It was me and two other people working on it in just one weekend (and Friday afternoon). We constructed it in modules: Individual reinforced triangular sections, glued together with Elmer's Wood Glue, and then placed in front of a 1500W space heater to dry them faster.
It would have held more, but we ran out of time, and had to assemble the three large sections (2 sides and the roadbed) with hot glue on the morning of the test. It was quite impressive though.
Originally posted by: silverpig
throw a bunch of toothpicks in a shoebox
dump in a bunch of bottles of glue
leave it in a warm place for a few days
rip off the shoebox
put textbooks on the brick
:laugh:
Me likey. Better yet,
fill it with epoxy.
Then write up a report on the strengths and weaknesses of anisotropic composites.
The appendix should include a note on the importance of carefully confining constraints on a problem.
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