Model Bridge Design

Hey guys it’s me again, First Timer. I came up with a good way to practice bridge building either before or for the next competition and/or just to keep your bridge building skills good, whether it be science fair or Science Olympiad. It’s building different bridge designs with K-NEX, Erector Sets, and/or LEGOs. Most of you probably own one or more of the following and it really helps practicing basic truss design.

I came up with the idea when I was looking through my closet for my scale for a new bridge (about to become Second Timer) and stumbled across a box of K-NEX. I took them out and started messing around with basic trusses to glue to a Poster board I had to turn in. Then I thought why not just make full bridges and weigh them to find out the best truss for a situation. You can also make towers with those things to some their good for any situation. I built a K-Truss and it held my entire brother (80 lbs), a stool (25 lbs), and a piece of plywood (.5 lbs).

I know its K-NEX not balsa, but still it’s always satisfactory to run out of materials to put on a bridge. It’s also fast to do it took me 25 minutes to build that K-Truss and look at how well it did. Also more recently I built a Warren Truss and it held 40 kilograms and weighed .1 of a kilogram which puts efficiency at 400. And for a plastic child’s toys I think that’s pretty good. So go ahead and try it. You can “Truss-t” me!

• First Timer’s First Bridge Design
• Howe Truss Bridge
• Science Olympiad Bridge
• Science Olympiad Boomilever
• Prairie Popsicle Stick Bridge

Post Category: building
Post Tags: first timer, k-nex, photos, reader submitted

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