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Popsicle Stick Bridge

Popsicle Stick Bridge

Popsicle Stick Bridge

(OP)
Pretty good for popsicle sticks and some hot melt glue:





A confused student is a good student.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson, PE
www.medeek.com

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

Hmmmn. The roof trusses (members) are in compression, right?

So, could a "deck" or glued on tension-resistant band be glued on to the bottom of the lower deck (under neath the bridge deck)?

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

Nice, was it built on a 'budget' like the similar labs I did at school and uni?

I.E. you'd be given a certain amount of construction materials and told to build from that, or you were given a 'budget' of points and could buy materials. Left over points helped toward handicapping the results etc.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

This brings me back to eggs in space

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

Would be interesting to know the "weight of the bridge" / "weight it can hold" ratio,
which is how we used to quote the results of similar competitions at school (after loading it to failure, which you might not want to do ...).

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

(OP)
Weight of Bridge: 1/4 lbs (approx.)
Weight it can Hold: 64 lbs (weight of daughter)

A confused student is a good student.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson, PE
www.medeek.com

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

Was this HER project or yours?

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

Dad is an engineer. It was HIS project!

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

After looking at your website, I have to wonder: did you first do a 3D model of this bridge?
and 1:256 is nice, no doubt it will get even better if you should test to failure.

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

I doubt any of the SEs will remember but does anybody know of the relationship between the force a structure will support and the material properties of the structure, and the minimum feasible mass of that structure? I came across it at uni, and thought at the time it was at once interesting and unusable.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

(OP)
I have five kids and it was a fun family project one evening. Of course I had to submit my own entry to the bridge contest. We kept loading up the bridges and I was really surprised at how much this bridge was capable of holding, finally I told my one daughters to hang off the middle of the bridge since I couldn't seem to reasonably overload it with stacked books. Even then it barely deflected. My wife was so shocked she told me to do it again and she snapped a cell phone picture.

A confused student is a good student.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson, PE
www.medeek.com

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

What kind of hot glue? I haven't used it much, but it seems like it would fail before the wood.

David
Connect with me on LinkedIn. http://lnkd.in/fY7-QK
Quote: "If it ain't broke, I must not've fixed it good enough"

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

(OP)
Just the high temp stuff you buy at Walmart,nothing special. The glue does peel off of the wood given enough effort but if there is decent surface area it seems pretty strong in shear.

A confused student is a good student.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson, PE
www.medeek.com

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

Waaaay back when I was young and healthy and at school <closes eyes and thinks wistfully> we were charged with making a truss with the best strength to weight ratio.
I managed to get hold of a two component room temperature polyurethane foam. So I made a cardboard mould, filled it with the rigid foam and, frankly, blew away the opposition.
They were NOT HAPPY accusing me of cheating and not playing fair etc. Teachers however were very pleased that someone had gone a different route than the triangulated drinking straw route that everyone else chose.
Happy days!
Sorry. Carry on.....

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go past." Douglas Adams

RE: Popsicle Stick Bridge

(OP)
As we were experimenting with Cereal Box cardboard and popsicle sticks we also found that the best connection could be created by connecting the sticks with gusset plates made of the cardboard on both sides.

A confused student is a good student.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson, PE
www.medeek.com

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