My Bridge Is Big Essay Research Paper

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.

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