In our recent class competition about making bridge from wood, our group and I have learned a lot of things. The primary thing is that a plan is highly needed before beginning any project. In this case, you must have first a vision of the bridge you want to build. It may help if you observe bridges in the city and look at its structure for you to understand and be able to build a strong and efficient bridge. Sketch the different types of bridges you have observed and choose from it. Building a bridge as a project is not an easy thing to do, because the details must be flawless to achieve optimum function of your bridge.
Your bridge must have a central and vertical pillar that has a hole through its center, to be able to accommodate heavy materials that are actually the basis of the competition. For efficiency’s sake, I have learned and discovered many techniques in building a bridge out of wood. It is important that the bridge has a small flat area on its top to accommodate load. Congruence on all sides of the bridge is also necessary that means equal measurements in size and shape so that the bridge will be stable. At the end of the competition, our group did not win, and we ranked 2nd place.
Our bridge was able to carry 17 kilos only. The problem I detected from our bridge is that our construction did not achieve optimum efficiency of the materials used. I have learned from the other groups that it is important that the load-bearing area of the bridge must be leveled equally, to be able to accommodate load properly. Also, the pressure pressed on both sides of the bridge must be even to prevent twisting of the bridge and cause the bridge to collapse (www. science-projects. com, 2002, p. n. pag. ).
The Essay on Truss Bridge Project Report
In this project, I had to design build and test a 16 inch long truss bridge. The goal of this project was to teach you how bridges are designed and built, and show the process of how bridges are designed and made in the real world by professional engineers. Bridges are used all over the world and it is a very important skill to know and understand how the physics of bridges work and why bridges ...
Before starting with your bridge, it helps to make first a miniature model of your bridge before finalizing your project. This is because you are still not sure if your plan and design of your bridge is the most efficient. It will help you detect inaccuracies and inconsistencies in your design. The bridge that won in our competition was the one that has the ability to constrain collapsing. I have discovered that your bridge must be very strong (www. science-projects. com, 2002, p. n. pag. ).
In order to assure the strength of your bridge, again build several duplicates first and perfection will be assured.
Choose the best duplicate you have made and select it as your entry for the competition. After mentioning that strength is a very important characteristic of your bridge, I have also explored that the lighter the bridge, the more efficient it will be. In terms of teamwork, I was happy with my group mates because each of us has done our best to accomplish our role in making our bridge. Brainstorming among your group is also one thing I have learned since it will squeeze up ideas from all of you. Also, learn from other people’s mistakes.
It is important to survey past competitions that also involved bridge making and be informed on the common mistakes made by the past groups. In that way, you will not repeat the same mistakes that they did. Overall, our group enjoyed this competition even though we did not win; because at the end of the competition, we still have learned so many strategies and methods on how to make the best and most efficient bridge. The next time we will join a bridge making competition, our chances of making mistakes have already decreased because of the much information we have learned based from our own experiences.
