Anti Earthquake Science Project

This year in science for geology we had to make a group and in that group design an earthquake proof building, test it a couple times and see how it went. The catch was that it had to be entirely made out of blutac and pasta, and it had to reach at least 60 cm tall in a 30*30 base. Dylan, Riley and I managed to make a working tower that reached 75 cm without damaging anything, and resisting one of the worst earthquakes that anyone had theirs tested on. There weren’t any marks assigned to whether your design worked or not but it was better if it did. Our design worked well by having a reverse pendulum in the center that flexed in the opposite direction to the direction the waves went allowing the force to be negated and keep the center of gravity over the base keeping it stable. After seeing everyone elses it was seen that trying to hold together like a fort doesn’t really work. A change that may make the buildings a bit more practical would be needing a platform of x*x near the top so that it is more like a building and less of a “spire”.

As the finance manager I did the calculations for all the money and costs to make sure we didn’t go over our budget of $60 dollars. Riley was the reporter so he made sure everything looked good and wasn’t overcrowded while Dylan made sure that progress was always made and kept us on track as the manager. Before construction however we each looked at different parts of construction. Riley looked at design choices, Dylan looked at structural integrity and I looked at how the components we used worked. We were originally going to have a hydraulic which is where I expertise in so I designed that while the other two worked on construction as Dylan is fast while Riley is steady. I contributed my creativity to new ideas and theories while the math gave me time to think up things. Riley provided a knowledgeable point of view to counteract Dylan’s design sights of just going for it only thinking it would work. Together we made a fantastic design for an earthquake proof building that has many functions including being a radio tower.

Our design
Group photo, from left to right: Jack Goddard, Dylan Baker, Riley Snook

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *