We had some of our cousins spend the weekend with us. After the initial greetings, Matt asked me, “Can we go finish the bridge?” We had started building a bridge last year, when they came over to visit. Matt had finished one side of the bridge. While I did help him design it, Matt did most of the building. I would do a little bit and say, “This is how you do it,” and Matt would do the rest.

We finished the bridge, and testing it. I even took a movie of it breaking, so expect to see it on the website soon. I thought the quality of construction was exceptional for a 10-year-old. I hope he continues to build bridges.

This is the first balsa bridge built by my 10-year-old cousin, Matt (with my supervision and design help). It spanned 14 inches, weighed 13.7 grams, and held 18 pounds on the first try. We didn’t let it break the first testing. Matt re-enforced the top chords by making them into L-beams. The bridge now weighed 17.4 grams, and held 24 pounds. The first efficiency score was 600, while the second being 627.

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