How Does the Arch Design Enhance the Strength of My Spaghetti Bridge?

[Marghk]

I'm currently in my final year of high school, doing physics. We have been given an assingment about bridge structures. Basically, we build a bridge out of spaghetti, test it and discuss it.

I'm thinking of things in which I can talk about.

I've built an Arch Design Bridge. Mainly due to the fact that the abutments can hold the energy dissipated throughout the bridge. Tension throughout the bridge is diminished due to natural semicircle structure of it.

But so far I only have simplistic things to talk about. Such as weight/Newton conversion, torsion, tension, compression, Strain, Stress etc.

While I'm quite able to do these things, I want to go into depth with some ideas which will really make me stand out from the other peices.

If anyone can help it would be extremely appreciated!

 

[denverdoc]

hmmm. These are all good things to talk about. Now imagine if you're a civil engineer in charge of putting together a bid for a new bridge across a bay. You may only be able to speculate about things like expense, safety, strength of materials, weight of materials, construction issues, effects of tides, high winds, etc. You definitely should mention the Tacoma narrows disaster as that is the bridge event of the 20th century and is an example of aeroelastic flutter phenomenon.