The American Society of Civil Engineers has been putting on an annual popsicle stick bridge competition for high schools in western Washington for the last 13 years. Last year, I entered with a 350 gram, 30 inch long bridge that carried 567 pounds under their hydraulic press. Their website is http://www.seattleasce.org/ymf/popsiclebridge.html . They score the bridges on efficiency (I won at that!) and aesthetics (I don’t know why I didn’t win at that).
How can we make this bridge with wood
How much plywood will be used
https://picasaweb.google.com/117394660058374969264/MasterpiecePopsicleStickBridge2009?authuser=0&feat=directlink
This album highlights the Popsicle Stick Bridge that I entered into the Seattle ASCE Younger Member Forum’s Popsicle Stick Bridge Competition in 2009. This particular entry swept all first place prizes in every category: efficiency, aesthetics, and poster. It’s 30 inches long, 11 inches tall, 5 inches wide, weighs just under 347 grams (0.77 pounds), is made out of only white birch Popsicle Sticks and Elmer’s White Glue, and it held 993 pounds before breaking (1300 times its own weight).
where can the plans for the constr4uctions be obtained
Carolyn, the author did not submit any plans for this bridge. I am not aware if he has any available.
Made a .86 ounce bridge that held 83lbs giving it an efficiancy of 1544.2!
Nice! Do you have any pictures of your bridge?
This last year I entered an amazing bridge that won both aesthetics and efficiency. It was 350 grams, 30 inches long, and held 993 lbs, 1300 times its own weight! The materials are: high grade popsicle sticks, elmers white glue, lots of clamps, lots of thinking, lots of time(they allow about 4 months), good craftsmanship, and a lot of patience.
Thanks for sharing, Darrel. Do you have any pictures of your bridge or that competition?
It’s Simple…
all you need is about 300-400 popsticle sticks and a hot glue gun or a regular glue…
then start combinning some popsticles to make a medium size arch to hold about 10 pounds with will trigger it to weild more weight for your science project.
at the end you should come out to about 40-70 pound bridge that can probubuly hold about 100-200 pounds of weight.
-Sage
thank you