Engineering 9 Popsicle Bridge By ZK and SO

Engineering 9 Popsicle Bridge By: ZK and SO Including: • • Investigation/Design process Planning process Creating Process Final Product

Introduction IB statement of Inquiry: How do design limitations encourage creativity in technology? Specification: We will be designing and creating a popsicle bridge based on our investigation. Then testing the design and refining the product. The bridge that holds the most weight will be the declared class “winner”. Materials Provided: The materials provided to all teams. May not exceed the limits. • 75 popsicle sticks The IB Design Cycle • 3 glue gun sticks • Drafting and sketching paper If you would like to validate or check any of the documents, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

The Investigating & Design Process The investigation and designing period was the most extensive part of the project. We first investigated pre-existing bridges and their materials. As you can see.

After the bridge investigation, we started a rough draft/idea of possible bridges we deem effective to construct. Truss Arch Bridge Arch. Truss Pyramid

Bridge Pros Cons Truss bridge -simple -trustworthy -doesn’t need to much popsicle sticks -if built correctly is very durable -very common -not very creative -too uncomplicated Arch -less complicated -doesn’t need too much material -different shape/base than others -not appropriate for long distances -symmetry is much more important for this one than others -creative -original -lots of force distribution due to many triangles -exciting to build -much more complicated -needs lots of material -not tested -wildcard -similar to truss, which is very successful -original -more complicated -measurements are confusing (the chosen bridge) Pyramid

Planning Process We were able to narrow down the bridges to two top designs. The basic truss and the arched truss. We decided to build a rough version of the truss, because we would need to see really positive results to create a good version. We favoured the arched-truss, due to its creativity and originality. Thus, we would prefer to create a final copy of the arched-truss. Yet, we were still slightly indecisive, so we created a quick draft of the truss, to solidify our choice. The next page contains the good sketch.

In the end we chose to put forth our Arched-Truss for evaluation. It was the more creative and exciting to build bridge. Plus, the prospect of uncharted territory proved too great for us to resist. Though it was a major risk, we chose it with no second thought after creating the Truss. The Arched-Truss was our own originality, and the planning was near impeccable, thus we felt it was the better of the two. Roles of the Team Member Role(s) Sarvenaz Construction of 2 bridges. Zohrah Power. Point and the good sketch. Goal(s) • To discover how the construction and planning fuse together • Being time efficient • Do our best work and try to have fun

How Force is Distributed on Top Two The Truss The Arched-Truss The popsicle sticks will be whole. Thus, being more affected by compression, tension, torsion, which will hinder its effectivity. Most of the force will be distributed on the diagonal innards. We will mostly use halved popsicle sticks for the archedtruss. Due, to the fact that compression, tension, torsion, and shear (which are the main types of forces that occurs on bridges, are less afflicting. Is majorly triangles. A lot of the force is going to be distributed through the inner parts and the arch, so we need to be particularly careful with those.

Pictured below is the good copy sketch. Left to right, Arch-Truss and Truss. All the annotations written were made for all 4 bridges. Though, this sketch is a more zoomed in version with different angles and specifications.

Creating Process Part 1. Preparing We gathered our needed materials and we know how much was needed due to our planning and investigation. Though I did create plan for the power point. We also counted the rough Truss part of preparing for the actual bridge.

We then observed the end result of the Truss and decided to not build one for final evaluation.

Part 2. Assembly Now that we were definite which bridge to make, Sarvenaz started the assembly. She was very careful with the symmetry which can be seen.

This is when the bridge was completed but was without paint. Up to this point everything went wonderfully. Then we noticed the width was to small, 5 cm instead of 10/11 cm. Thus, Sarvenaz took it apart, fixed it and added paint. In the next step.

At this point the bridge was completely finished. This was the end product.

Final Evaluation Day On the day of the final evaluation we discovered an obstacle. The bridge was bending/curving at a certain place. Which is seen clearly in the picture below.

Result/Weakness We immediately predicted that to be our weak point. This might have been a result of change in temperature. Which was proven correct in the testing. Our bridge snapped in the area where curvature was most evident at 20 lbs.

Though the testing proved discouraging it was a learning experience that outside factors, especially affect wood the most. Thus, evidence on why wood is not very commonly used. As though we knew, though tested, some time old-fashioned, trustworthy, and proven override new, and creative. Plus, I personally discovered I enjoy planning and creating” blueprints” very much.

S conclusion: “This experiment was quite interesting and challenging as it seemed to be a very easy assignment, it required a lot of detail, close attention and planning. Over all I’m very proud of our team-work, time management and not criticizing each other’s failures. If I were ever to build another popsicle bridge, I would spent more time on the planning or evaluate more before the due date or if with the same bridge, I would focus more on the middle and add more crosses. ” Pros Cons Discover areas of growth Mainly an in school project Teamwork Limited materials Work on creativity Weak material (popsicles) Learning to use new tools Ex. Glue gun Too many half or smaller sized popsicle sticks in the design Learning to deal with failure

Bibliography • http: //science. jrank. org/pages/1036/Br idges. html • http: //www. pbs. org/wgbh/buildingbig/b ridge/ • https: //joinerd. wikispaces. com/file/vie w/design_cycle_picture. jpg/18179739 5/design_cycle_picture. jpg • https: //joinerd. wikispaces. com/file/vie w/plan. png/181938859/plan. png