I was the materials engineer and I learned a lot about paper. There are 5 basic grades of paper. They are bond, offset, coated book, text, and cover. . Bond is usually reserved for letter heads, business forms, and printing jobs. Offset or uncoated book is the most common sheet for offset printing. Coated book is a glossy sheet that yields vivid colors and great reproduction. Text is a high quality sheet with a lot of texture. Cover is used for book covers, business cards and postcards. Different grades of paper have different weights.  A file folder is made up of manila paper.

I also learned about adhesion and cohesion. Adhesion is the ability to stick to something. Cohesion is the ability to stick to itself.

The glue we used was Elmer's Glue. This glue is chemically based.

I interviewed John. He is a construction project manager. He seemed to have a lot of ideas. He told me that the best way to go is to use a lot of triangles because they are the strongest shape. He also told me that having a base would make it stronger.

Our structure was 9 1/8 inches tall which made the height requirement. It ended up holding 340 pounds which made the weight requirement.

Some benefits of our design were making a circle with many triangles and cylinders inside of it because they helped make it stronger while holding the weights.

Some weaknesses of our design were that some of the sides weren't as strong as the rest, so when we put the weights on top of it, they started to cave in. Also the bottom started to wrinkle and cave in like the sides.

To make our structure better I would distribute the cylinders more evenly inside the triangles and make a base.

http://www.piag.org/buyers/tips/Paper_grades.htm

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mglue.html

http://www.elmers.com/faq/index.asp