This is my first action project for my class, Urban Planning. The title of this unit was called Load, where we learned about Newton's laws of motion. Each law of motion has different correlations to how architects build certain areas. We saw this by looking at the 7 ancient wonders of the world and understanding why the pyramids are the only ones still standing. From there, we looked at bridges, and how certain bridges can be used in different circumstances. This led us to have a field experience with Mark Bennett who is an urban planner to get direct information for how our information can be applied to certain structures. For this action project, the purpose was to build a bridge of our own out of popsicle sticks.
"Former Santa Fe Railroad Through Truss Bridge over Trinity River on Santa Fe Trestle Trail, Dallas, Texas 1306141015BW" by Patrick Feller is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
For this project I collaborated with LH. Our bridge takes inspiration from a Truss Bridge. We chose this design, because it would spread the weight out equally. Specifically, a Pratt truss allows for tension and compression to work the most effectively while having weight move on it.
Here's his blog below if you'd like another perspective on this project:
Here's a sketch of our bridge where 1 inch on the sketch is equal to 6 inches in real life:
"Bridge Sketch", By LH, 2023
Along with a digital sketch of our design:
“Digital Bridge Sketch”, By LH, 2023
The SDG that our bridge connects with most is 11.2. SDG 11.2 is to provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems in the world. Not only this but to improve road safety, notably by expanding public transport, while keeping in mind who's being affected. Bridges in themselves allow for an extra option for transportation besides walking and biking in and out of cities. Driving is a popular way for a lot of people to get around. The more bridges there are, it can allow for easy travel.
After building our bridge, here's a diagram that shows each part of it:
"Bridge Diagram", By RBL, 2023
Here are the calculations for our bridge:
"Calculations", By RBL and LH, 2023
The bridge itself also shows the law of conservation of energy. This means that no energy can be created or destroyed, but only converted to one form to another. For our bridge, it's form of energy is converted from potential to kinetic given certain circumstances. When bridges fall apart, it shows the conversion from potential to kinetic through how they work.
Here's our bridge in action:
In conclusion, I enjoyed working on this action project because I've already had past experiences with making bridges with popsicle sticks. The main thing we wanted to hit with our design was making sure that we had the longest bridge that could hold ten pounds. Because of this, we needed to prioritize having a long bridge with solid trusses that can hold weight equally across it. In some cases, it made it more difficult to have supporting points on each side because it led to one side falling over when testing. We also needed to understand how to work efficiently with our limited number of 75 popsicle sticks. This made it difficult for us to weigh our tests while having a long bridge. We overcame some of these things by cutting our popsicle sticks in half and giving them a bigger portion. From this project, I learned that if we had a slightly shorter bridge with more support spread out it would've been more effective. If I were to do this again, I might want to see how doing a different type of truss might affect how the weight shifts.
United Nations. (n.d.). Goal 11 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations. Retrieved April 23, 2023, from https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11
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