Staquet Weekly Blog - Week 5

Last week we were instructed on how the competition will be set up and in what ways our bridges will be tested.  We found out that the bridge will need an area relatively close to the center in order to fit a metal rod through, as well as a portion of the top of the bridge that is flat for about 8 inches.  These requirements are so an 8 inch piece of wood in which a metal rod is attached can be placed on top of the bridge.  The metal rod will run through the bridge from top to bottom where it will then be attached to a bucket that will be slowly filled with weight, ultimately determining the strength of the bridge.  The strength of the bridge is then compared to its cost and the team with the lowest cost to weight ratio is the winner.  As a group we were given about an hour to work with the K'Nex and get an idea of their sizes and how they fit together.  This week we plan to collaborate and decide on a basic bridge design to work off of.  We are hoping to get the chance to build more bridges and get more hands on experience with the K'Nex.  As a group I feel we may run into an issue with having enough time in the lab to build and test our designs.  It is a competition that relies a lot on trial and error and in our case, building and testing over and over again.  With everyone in the lab doing this the testing station could begin to get congested and cause a bit of standing around.

While West Point Bridge Design and building bridges out of K'Nex may seem to be very similar, they are completely different at the same time.  WPBD has a lot more options in not only materials but the orientation of members as well.  With K'Nex you are limited to building off of gussets that only come in 45 degree increments, unlike WPBD which allows you to connect to anchor points in anyway you choose.  Another huge difference is the materials; in WPBD you are able to change between hollow and solid members, choose any length of member, and the type of material while K'Nex come in limited sizes and only one material.  The comparison between the two methods will continue to show that the K'Nex are more limiting in any aspect.  Another big difference is that in WPBD the goal was to be as cheap as possible and still have the truck drive over the bridge.  Now the competition is dependent on a rate of cost to weight.  This makes the competition a little more challenging in terms of comparison to other groups because the weight is no longer held constant.