Maine East High School Balsa Wood Bridge Contest 2010

[Adler556]

Nice carnige guys :D It would be nice to see a contest with opposite goals as this one. Limitations to only 1 design plan for everybody but effort is put on manipulation of materials where you can laminate, mix and add materials with balsa as the base.

I'm going to build a wooden bike frame and is looking for ways to make a lightweight but still stiff and strong construction where lamination seems to be the way to go.

[nelrish24]

w0w cool guys!

[fomin23]

really? They are good designs, but why are you applying the load to the middle of the balsa wood piece? You make it a 3-force member, and the balsa wood is not strong in that way. If you apply all of the load to the joint, then it becomes a 2-force member, and thats where balsa wood is strong. When you keep the balsa wood in tension, it can hold tremendous load, compared to the woods weight.

[jetblue70]

haha this is exactly what i did at my school mine couldnt even hold the bucket itself but my firends lasted until the bucket was filled with water