Science Olympiad Bridges
Question:
What’s your take on the new scoring. Do you think the bridge should just aim at holding 15 kg… or try to build one that’s lighter and hold less possibly getting a higher efficiency score?
I used to think that you should go lighter, holding less. But now I think that you should aim at holding the 15, but no worries if it doesn’t. That rule gives a lot more freedom to builders, and now they can go lighter with the possibility of not holding all the weight.
The thing is, that as you go lighter, one tenth of a gram makes a big difference in your score. There is a bigger score difference between a 5 gram and a 5.1 gram bridge than there is between a 10 and 10.1 gram bridge. Make sense? If you build a 4 gram bridge, it only has to hold 8kg to score 2000. A three gram bridge must hold only 6kg to get the same score. That is a 2000 gram weight difference, but the bridges were only 1 gram apart.
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