5th period Mr. Moore Physics My Bridge is Big! I built my bridge on the
foundation of triangles because any engineer will tell you they are one of the
strongest shapes. No matter where you put pressure that other two sides of the
triangle pick up the excess pressure. I decided to build the triangles into
boxes so the support would spread out over a much greater area. I also added
extra glue to the joints to strengthen the corners that did not match up really
flush. In doing so I created joints that were not entirely straight but hold up
just as well. I also cut the toothpicks so I could use whole ones as
hypotenuses. Many were thrown out because they were broken or had defects in
them. Many difficulties I encountered were not having enough fingers to glue the
four sides down. Also it was a huge mess when the glue bottle became clogged and
would not pour out until you squeezed it very hard. Well it then came oozing out
all over your bridge and wasted like half the tube all over the wax paper or
your mother’s nice table.
It was also very hard to get the toothpicks to stay in
the upright position and when you moved a slight bit either way the toothpick on
the other side would fall over. Mechanical engineering involved in the bridge
building process included finding out that 45-degree angles were the strongest
and that mass and stress put on these angles broke after the toothpicks were
bent. Some careers include architecture, masonry, carpentry, astronomy and being
a high school physics teacher.
