Introduction
For the last few weeks in science the year 9s were tasked with constructing an earthquake-resistant structure out of spaghetti and blue tack. The structure had to withstand P-waves and S-waves and then see how much weight it could hold. In this task, we had to use our engineering skills and problem-solving skills to build this structure with $60 and follow building conditions. $1 for a strand of spaghetti and $1 for a gram of blue tack, the structure had to be a minimum of 60cm tall and have a 5cm base on the top so weight could be added after the earthquake simulation. The base of the structure could not exceed 30cm x 30cm. We had to use the engineering process for this project, the process is below
Overview of the engineering process
Our first design was different as our instructions told us $1 per 10cm of spaghetti so our designs were limited to how much we could build. On the day of construction for our 1st design we realized that it was $1 a piece, so we went with a similar design except the cross-bracing was on all sides of our structure. Through our construction, we realized that it was quite difficult to make this design and required a lot more time to construct than the time we had. In the end, it took us 30 minutes to construct 1/5 of our structure. This design used cross bracing as our main stability and was only used on 2 sides because it was too expensive until we realized we could do it on all sides. We also found out that a support beam down the middle was too difficult to make.
In our second design, we changed a few things, the most obvious change was the type of bracing used. We switched to Inverted V bracing because we believed it had similar efficiency but was way easier to construct compared to cross bracing. In our design now knowing that it’s $1 a strand, we copied our design on all sides and were able to use the leftover money to buy extra blue tack. On the actual day of the test we found that time was the biggest problem, we felt pressured during the construction of our structure which led to us making a few mistakes and slightly weakened our structure. Although after everything we had about a minute spare and were eligible for the testing
Our structure survived the test but at one point our structure nearly snapped and fell over. We were able to hold 50 grams of weight but could not do 100 grams. The engineering process was effective and led to an earthquake resistant made out of spagetti and blue tack. Overall I found this project interesting as it tests your engineering skills and efficiency.
Our origingal first design
Types of bracing
Our final design
Teamwork and collaboration
Throughout this project, we all worked efficiently and during building time we worked together efficiently to construct the structure. Jamie had the role of being the speaker and reporter of the project, Andrew was the project manager and I was the equipment manager. I had to make sure that the materials needed for the task are available and that everyone cleaned up after each session. Andrew had the role of making sure that everyone understands the challenge and keeps the team on track. Jamie had to makes sure that the final presentation is ready by the deadline and seeks help from the teacher, other class members or outside experts if needed.