Have you ever look at famous bridges? Maybe the Golden Gate Bridge? or London Bridge? When you look at them, you must think ‘how on Earth do they carry so much weight, every day, plus storms, without breaking?’ Well, actually, it’s their strong and sturdy structure. It’s not the fact that they are made of steel and steel is strong so the car won’t fall off. It’s the shape of the bridge. And that’s what I did. Proving that the material doesn’t matter, as long as it is built correctly.
Spaghetti Bridges are an awesome way of proving that the material does not matter, as long as the structure is correct. First of all though, what are spaghetti bridges? It is a Dyson Engineering challenge (jamesdysonfoundation.co.uk), a challenge for young enginers who want to pursue their dreams, and also get a head start at a younger age, like me!
They basically need to be built with only spaghetti and tape/hot glue. Then it’s just a matter of putting it together to make it strong as possible. There are some ways to do this:
-Triangular structure
-Suspensions with string
-Dome shape
These are the main points of what should make a strong spaghetti bridge.
You may be asking though, ‘what has this got to do with engineering?’ Well, there are actuaslly many reasons why this has to do with engineering. The first one is mistakes. I made so many mistakes (see my next blog) throughout the journey, and I learnt after every single one, making sure that i don’t make the same mistake again. The second is resiliance. There were quite a few times where I just felt like giving up. There was a problem I couldn’t solve and I just felt like collapsing. But i managed to solve it after a long time of thinking and the I carried on. The third one is time. You need to put time and effort into a project, something I don’t have at the moment as I have exams soon. You need to thourougly plan, and then look at flaws in the design to fix it, then it’s materials. Spend the time gathering materials, and then spend time building the project properly, not quickly so you can go play Fortnite, but take time to perfect the project and make sure it is the best it can possibly be.
Tacoma Narrows bridge is something I will always look at and think: ‘how does that even happen?’ I was making this bridge, thinking of what happened to Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and wondering: ‘Can I make this bridge better than that one, or even a real bridge? I was motivated by this bridge, as it just proves that not all design as perfect, although some may seem that way. It just proves that if something goes wrong, then others know how to make it better. I i didn’t use triangular structures (which I did), my sister would have then said, ‘ok he didn’t use them and his broke, so when I use them, they might work’. Engineering isn’t a one man job. Not always, in fact hardly ever. There will always be other people, wether it be family supporting you, or a friend helping you, there are always other people as well.
I was so excited to do this project as I could then start adding up my portfolio fo r the scholarship, but also it was a fun experiance, as now my Dad is also trying to beat me and build a better spaghetti bridge than me.
The next Blog about the journey will be coming out soon!