Toothpick Span

Purpose and Description

The purpose of this project was to see how much weight the structure could hold. We had to make a structure by given description. Also, our goal of the project was to make a structure that could hold as much as weight as it could.

Once again, to sum up, we had to create a span made of toothpicks that spans 15cm.

First Structure

plan and design

As I said before, our plan and design was to make a structure with the information given beside.

Result

The result was not bad compared to what I have expected. I expected that our structure would hold 5 bags but it actualy holded 8 bags.

What I Learned

From this trial I learned the reason why our structure broked. It was because the toothpick part was weak. Joints were fine. As you can see the picture beside(right) (picture taken when the structure was almost broken apart), joints were fine, but the toothpick part was broken.

Plan and Design

We learned that toothpick part was weak, so we decided make imporvement on the toothpick part. As you can see the picture beside, we added 2~3 more toothpick only on the middle top and bottom part of the structure.

Result

This time, joints and toothpick parts didn't broked, but instead, it got twisted, and then it broked. But I was happy to see that toothpick part of the structure didn't get to broke. (See the picture beside)

What I Learned

This time, I learned that now, we had to focus more on how to make sure that our structure was not being twisted.

First Trial Information

Second Trial Information

Second Structure

First Trial Information

Plan and design

This time, our design was different from first strucutre. It was to build 3 cubes connected to each other. (see the picture provided beside)

Result

Sadly, we failed this trial. Our structure couldn't hold any weights. It couldn't even hold the basket's weight. The reason it failed was because of the joints. As you can see in the picture, our joint that made out of gule, was flaxible enough to bend every part of the joints. We sticked every single toothpicks on to the glue. That was the reason why our structure was able to bended easily.

What I Learned

From this trial, I learned that we shouldn't stick toothpicks into glue. Or else, the structure would bended so easily.

Second Trial Information

Plan and design

This time, to strengthen our sturcture, we connected two toothpicks together and sticked that toothpicks on each sides of the structure horizontly.

Result

This time our strucutre was able to hold up 5 weights. So in total, it holded up 768.8g. As you can see in the picture, our structure broked because of the weakness of the toothpick part. But I was happy enough because the joint part didn't broke which means that it was strong enough to hold up the weight.

What I Learned

From this trial, I learned that now, we need to concentrate on the toothpick part and think about how to make toothpick strong enough to hold the weight.

Overall

Out of four trial, the best design was first structure on second trial because it held the most weight of 1165.6g. Next time when I work on this project obviously, I wil try my best to make a structure by using a knowledges that I gained from this project.