Bell Weekly Blog- Week 10

In the previous week, the group tested our bridge in the competition. The results of the competition were that it held a total of 29.8 lbs, compared to when we tested this same design in week 8 which held a total of 35 lbs. The major accomplishments that the group has had this past week was placing third in the competition. Although our group didn't hold the most weight, we still had a decent cost to strength ratio. In addition to this, we placed first with the closest guessed weight and actual weight held. Throughout this term, our group has not run into any confrontations or obstacles.

After reading the course goals, I have found out that I have indeed learned many things worthwhile that I can still use later on. First of all, i have learned that teamwork is very essential. Without others, it would make it quite difficult to come up with all of the ideas by yourself. Planning the design was also crucial. Without planning, the building process would be quite difficult. It was also very important to document. Documenting everything made it very easy to refer to in case we needed any information. Probably one of the most important things that we learned was the design process. We learned through ourselves and other classmates the there are multiple designs that could have been built. A lot of thinking and brainstorming had to go into this process to try and come up with the best bridge possible. We went through this process both for the K'nex bridge and the WPBD program. WPBD was a very useful program that I used. The most beneficial aspect of this program was the numerical values that were given at each test. Once we tested these bridges, we were able to find out what was wrong with our design. We tested these K'nex bridges through truss analysis with forces on each member.I feel that the least beneficial aspect of this course was the blog posts. I felt that they had no other purpose other than for the sake of writing. However, this aspect does not include the A1, 2, 3, 4, Truss Analysis, etc., which were very beneficial. Setting the negative things aside, I feel that I enjoy this class as it is and feel no need to make too many changes to this course. The one thing that I would like to change would be the blog posts. Like I said, I think these posts are pointless and serve no meaning. However, this was a very exciting course and I am very pleased with it.