Spaghetti bridges
Spaghetti bridge designs: Spaghetti is one of the most favorite forms of pasta in the world. You will be surprised to know that it is not just a food item to be consumed, but you can also use it to build towers and bridges. Spaghetti bridge building involves the design and process for making a bridge out of spaghetti. There are many places in the world where spaghetti bridge building competitions are held. Several architects and professional engineers also take part in such contests. Spaghetti bridge building can help you in incorporating several connections from ‘real life’ mathematics. In order to do this, you need to conduct a research on bridge designs, building rules and codes, and then design a spaghetti bridge spanning a two-foot “canyon”. It is interesting to know that the limits of the humble and tasty pasta have been pushed into such creative events.
In fact, structures made of spaghetti and glue have been built to span even gaps of up to a meter, which can even support weight equivalent to a man. However, it is not just a matter of merely stringing bundles of noodles over night. In order to create a typical champion spaghetti bridge, it can take weeks or even months of assembling, testing, and tweaking before it is ready.
Build a spaghetti bridge: Building a bridge out of spaghetti can be a fun and very challenging activity. It integrates both science and mathematics. People who build spaghetti bridges require inexpensive materials like tape, spaghetti and glue. If it is a school project, it also requires a cost analysis of the product from the students, along with conceptualizing how the finished product will look before building it. Try to choose a simple design by using multiple triangles. For more stability, you can use an inverted triangle rather than a triangle with the apex on top. You need to use hot glue, as it tends to cook as well as melt the ends of the spaghetti. Make sure that you use just enough so that the spaghetti pieces stick together. The points where the bridge is supported at the ends by the edge of the gorge are known as the bearing points. These areas need to be smooth and flat because otherwise there are chances that the bridge might get twisted and break. You can strand the spaghetti together like a rope or cable. While spaghetti is brittle and strong in axial tension, it can also be very strong in compression. So, try and make the compression members as short as practical through adding the internal web members. The spaghetti connections should be strong but flexible, because if the connection is too rigid, when the bridge starts deflecting, the joints will rotate and twist and add bending force into the spaghetti. You can boil the spaghetti for about 25 minutes and dry it slowly while drawing the spaghetti into a long and slender dimension. This will result is a spaghetti member that is light in weight and flexible, yet strong in tension. Although this process is suitable for a good tension member, it is not ideal for a compression member.
Spaghetti bridge project: There are several schools and colleges where students are asked to do a spaghetti bridge project. Building a bridge out of spaghetti is like an educational project for the students, where they learn how to incorporate science and math in one go to make something as interesting as a spaghetti bridge. You can check out on the Internet for the pictures of such projects, and also information regarding the designing and building of a Virtual Bridge Truss.
More