Miniature Bridge Design Ideas: Simple or Complex?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dabomb14
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Bridge Design
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
Sign up Log in
4 replies · 2K views
dabomb14
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
So I am the leader of a small group who has to build a bridge in 30 minutes on the last day of school. The only materials we can use are play-dough, straws, and rubber bands and it has to stretch 30 cm between two tables. Though I was looking for some ideas of a bridge design to use. Should I go with something simple like a king or queen post or something more complicated like a solid ribbed arch or a through truss? Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
dabomb14 said:
So I am the leader of a small group who has to build a bridge in 30 minutes on the last day of school. The only materials we can use are play-dough, straws, and rubber bands and it has to stretch 30 cm between two tables. Though I was looking for some ideas of a bridge design to use. Should I go with something simple like a king or queen post or something more complicated like a solid ribbed arch or a through truss? Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Welcome to the PF.

Can you say more about your own ideas for design options? What are the tradeoffs?
 
After thinking about the time it would take to do something very detailed, I was thinking about doing a king's post design. The main tradeoff would be time and material. If it is not completed in time or we a end up short a little of materials to finish, then obviously an unfinished bridge is going to fail.
 
I assume basic straw length. We get 50 straws and 300 rubber bands.