We were tasked to create a structure that would resist an earthquake, with the following requirements:

• Our structure had to be made out of the supplied materials, spaghetti, and Blu Tack
• We had a budget of $60, and each spaghetti and each gram of Blu Tack cost $1
• Our tower must have a base of no more than 30cm squared
• Our tower must be at least 60cm tall
• Our tower must be able to survive a simulated ‘earthquake’ for 10 seconds – our teacher shaking it
• Our tower must be able to hold a flat platform of about 5 by 5 centimetres on top

Our engineering process followed a few simple guidelines – find the strongest shape and the cheapest method. Luckily, we found a method that combined these two features. Triangles are the strongest shape since they are unable to cave in on themselves like other shapes. This also means they need less spaghetti. We also made use of all our resources, by using only full-length spaghetti. This also means that our design was better balanced, as cutting spaghetti can sometimes be uneven.

If we made a tower out of only triangles, surely it would be very strong. So we made our tower using a simple method – placing inverted triangles on top of each other, then connecting each corner to each other. This proved to be very cheap and quite easy to assemble. Overall, this design was $30, including blu tack. When we got to the top, we devised a simple method of laying our remaining spaghetti on top of each other to make a platform. This costed another $10. We were well under the budget, so we did our first test, successfully. However we did have to change the layout because it broke shortly after.

To organise our group, we allocated each person’s roles. Since we had four roles and two people, we had to give each person two roles. Ashton is quite organised, and good at planning, so he was in charge of making sure everything went on track and according to plan. I am good at designing, and planning what we will need so I was the equipment manager. I am also more social and confident than Ashton so I was in charge of seeking help if needed.

While I made the structure, Ashton kept track of our budget and how well it was meeting up to our planned max. We ended up using the spare strengthening our structure.