Week 11 Reflection (Spaghetti Bridge Project)

The task of the spaghetti bridge project was to construct a durable, effective bridge that was the lightest and strongest it could be. Oh, and it was to be made entirely of spaghetti noodles, hot glue, and tape. It was difficult for me to construct my bridge because in order for it to be able to hold more weight, itself had to have more mass. I found myself struggling a bit on deciding whether to make it heavier, but have it be able to him more mass, or make it lighter and have it carry less. I was unsure on what tactic to go for originally, but I feel as though my plan worked out well.

I decided to construct a more durable bridge, which consisted of more noodles and therefore mass. Although the bridge had to contain two levels for structural support, the top level wasn't to have any mass or cars driving on it, so it didn't have to be as sturdy as the bottom level. Mainly the top level was needed to keep the bridge from swaying back and forth and from tipping to the side. Don't want to lose any cars from the bridge flipping over. Because of this, I made the bottom level much beefier and used logs of spaghetti noodles glued at the ends to create the bottom half of the bridge. I then used logs going the opposite way to provide a place for the masses during the destruction test.

The results of my bridge turned out to be very successful and I was interested to witness how strong spaghetti noodles could actually be. I have to admit that in the beginning I was a bit skeptical of the project, but it turned out to be much more enjoyable than I originally thought. At times it could become frustrating due to the construction process, but it was also extremely rewarding to have such a great outcome from my hard work. It was exciting to destruct the bridges, but also sad to see our work completed.

Lesson learned: don't underestimate the power of spaghetti noodles.