Today at our school we had a contest for the geometry class. They have been working on putting together wooden bridges made of tooth picks. The goal was to make a bridge, completey out of un-cut toothpicks and glue, that could support a large amount of weight.
I beleive that gap they had to cover was 11-inches. And each bridge had to have a hole in the middle to allow for the weight platform to hang from. The bridges then would have to hold every increment of weight for atleast 5 seconds, before more weight was added (The increment being 5 pounds).
While the overall of the contest was entertaining because of the busting of bridges, meaning toothpicks going everywhere, the most entertaining was the first bridge tried. It was a marvelous peice put together by Sarah Thompson that was not only artistic, but also stable.
The bridge was able to hold well over 200 pounds, and show’d no signs of breakage. In this yearly contest, all the bridges are to be tried until breakage, but Sarah was alloud to keep her bridge in one peice because of the weight platform being unable to fit any more weight.
I really enjoyed watching this competition, and recomend watching it to students of the future~
