Job Description

          My job as the strength engineer was to research how our structure could hold the most weight.  I found out information about how the tallest and heaviest buildings stand up on their own I  tried to replicate those designs for our structure.

    Interview Information

     We each had to do an interview to educate us about what to do for our project.  I interviewed Michael Hammerstrand who is a senior at BHS.  He did this project when he was in honors geometry too.  He gave me several good pieces of information. to use.  He really emphasized the use of corrugation and said that triangles and circles were the best shapes to use to achieve top strength.  He also suggested that we double reinforce and double glue everything. 

    Structure Design

      Most of the structures used a triangle on the outside.  Our structure used full length pillars on the corners.  then we used 1/2 sized pillars with corrugation in the middle on the bottom.  we put a middle level on and then topped it of with more of the small pillars.  We also used lots of glue.

While doing research for this project I discovered some very interesting things.  I learned about triangulation, tension, compression.  Triangulation is a building technique that involves making small triangles in the foundation of a structure to increase its strength and durability.  tension is the force that pulls on an object.  Compression is the force that pushes on an object.

Bibliography

The person that I interviewed was Michael Hammerstrand.  The websites that I got my information from were: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/civilengineering/research/structures/structuralperformance/

http://ezinearticles.com/?Types-of-Building-Materials&id=353971

Reflections

    Our project held 180 pounds which tied for third place in the class.  The structure was good, but we put the weights on unevenly and it over-balanced.  In our reflections, the whole group agreed that making two levels of the small cylinders was a bad idea.  We decided that what we should've done was make all of the cylinders the same size as the corner cylinders.  If we had done that. our project could've held at least 100 more pounds.  Also, if we had been more careful in the stacking of the weights it could've held more weight.  This was a fun project and it was a fun way so start geometry.