Lightest Spaghetti Bridge Project - Monash University

The brief was to build the LIGHTEST spaghetti bridge that could hold 1500 grams for 15 seconds across a 250 mm span. This bridge weighed 11.6 grams and held 1920 grams, a load to weight ratio of 167. Over-engineering was penalized and the entire structure had to be purely made from of San Remo spaghetti or linguini and fasteners. I had 3 entries at 7(g), 8.2(g) and 11.6 grams. I attempted the world ratio record with my lighter bridges and used the previously tested heavier model for the assignment. In my testing I held 1700 grams with a bridge that weighed 8.2 grams, a ratio of 207. Here I start with 1.5 KG and increase it to 2.2 which was the ultimate breaking point for this model. This is the first project for the second semester of 2009 in Mechanics and Electronics for Industrial Design (IDE2811).

Category:

Education

Tags:

• spaghetti bridge
• bridge
• Monash University
• Monash Industrial Design
• Art and Design
• Industrial Design
• Design
• macaroni
• Over-engineering
• structure
• San Remo
• spaghetti
• linguini
• fasteners
• winning
• weight
• light
• grams
• load
• ratio
• Ultimate breaking weight
• Spaghetti bridge contest
• The Impossible Bridge
• Spaghetti Bridge
• lightest bridge
• winning bridge design
• never attempted before
• world record

[1donagin]

The ratio doesn't seem to tell the whole story, as the span also has a significant impact on the calculation...

[MaverickOfTheSkies]

Oh absolutely... there are "bridges" out there with less than 8 gms of spaghetti which bear 8 kgs but they sit on flat surfaces with no "gap" underneath and weight is applied from above on a parallel plane. Personally I wouldn't call those bridges anymore (more like stumps lol) but every brief is different I guess

[SUPERBLAH28]

Pretty cool video, as for the bridge project i believe dion made a 2 gram bridge which could hold the 1500 grams for 15 secs, but it was kinda cheap, although still within the rules of the brief lol

[MaverickOfTheSkies]

I was there myself, helping him out :))

First of all it was 4 gramS with the STRING... Secondly although it was within the brief, it was a completely different concept... I think he was trying to figure out how to change the brief for next semesters so it would have "less flaws" - if you will. I donno if you can call two strands of horizontally superglued linguini and two meters of fishing line a bridge lol...

[happinesson]

what an effort! you need to have an engineering mind to construct this bridge!

[adelle0001]

awesome project! nice

[wiseshafi]

I bet if he had put the weights with a bit more patience and without moving, the bridge would have held them ! But great job ! This is so cool !

[AppleKhanoom]

Hey that was awesome!