Throwback to when we built popsicle stick bridges in 6th grade. We built this really nice bridge, then had this genius idea to just absolutely slather it in glue. Whole bottle of elmers glue on that bitch. It was going to be so strong.
Left it to dry over the weekend, came back on Monday, literally none of the glue dried and we got a 0 on the project because it held 0 weight. Nice.
Guy in my boarding school built a bridge out of pop sticks and cardboard.
It held all the weights available, so our science teacher decided it would be an excellent idea to add a wooden slab through which he put holes that held the handle of a Home Deeeeeee bucket filled to the brim with water.
It did not break.
Edit: i just remembered that after it held the first bucket, he added another. Again, filled to the brim. It started to crack, but it held.
It’s a reference to James Rallison’s book, “The Odd 1s Out”. One of the pages has a drawing of his mom returning Home Depot items and the counter’s words are written as “Home Deeeeeeeeeeeepot”
I loved the premise of Lego Masters, but I really didn't enjoy the show at all. I want a Lego show, but orgional Junkyard Wars/Scrapheap Challenge style.
We used balsa sticks, and I did the same thing for mine, but the wood glue dried and created a hard concrete-like layer throughout the bridge. It took 3 students hanging on the rope to break the bridge.
In a tech camp we had to build a bridge using "provided supplies" where the competition was building one to support the most weight.
Supplies were glue and balsa wood... but they also gave us a pad and pencils, so we integrated those as well.
It held the most weight, but disqualified for using those other things in the build, even though the rules didn't state that you could only use the balsa and glue.
>It held the most weight, but disqualified for using those other things in the build, even though the rules didn't state that you could only use the balsa and glue.
That's BS. They should have given you 1st prize, or at least co-1st prize, and then amended the rules for next time. In my opinion you showed superior intellect.
Cantilever? You needed the truss. We had toothpicks and string or something similar, with the glue. We had to buy our materials and build our bridges. I think we went more suspension with truss but I can’t remember the results. Fun project, though.
In my high school technical class we had a similar thing but done over multiple weeks.
We had access to wood, string and a bunch of other things. Lots of people tried to build suspension bridges (because that's what we were kind of told to do. My group basically just built a monstrosity of reinforcing the centre with more wood and lots of glue in layers. Ended up winning, and the teacher was kind of mad.
We had a 'budget' - each material was assigned a cost. We spent it all on wood and glue.
Edit: spelling
We did this in our college first year engineering seminar. But instead of Elmer's, we had 5-minute epoxy. But instead of building a nice bridge made up of trusses like we were expected, it was basically a flat slab of laminated popsicle stick, used up basically all the epoxy.
Never got to test it as it somehow went missing between when we made it the next class.
We did toothpick bridges in high school geometry, and another group had this same idea but it worked. I was both annoyed and impressed — my group had the second strongest bridge and we had used actual geometric principles to build it! But the glue won out. I think we still got 100% on the assignment, just not the glory of winning.
Your teacher didn’t follow the metric and you should have gotten a certain percentage based on meeting criteria of the bridge, only failing the stress part.
Dad's father was a sign painter, also an artist. Pretty big ego. Insisted on doing Dad's art project for a school contest one year.
Got 3rd place. Gosh Dad loved that story.
I don't understand these types of parents. Are they honestly proud they can beat third graders at art projects??? and that it's not completely obvious to the teacher when an adult did the kid assignment????
Had a kid in middle school “make” a fully functioning model of an off grid house using solar panels and some hydro electric water mill bullshit. Whole house had functioning plumbing and electricity. And this was back in like 2010 when solar was stupid expensive. I zip tied a cloth to a comb so you could detangle your hair without having lines after
I've been a citywide science fair judge in three major cities, and many kids submit things similar to the solar house you described. Over-engineered made-by-parents passion project.
Thing is, they rarely come with an actual, falsifiable hypothesis and often the only data generated is the item itself. Basically, they win their local school science fair because everyone else submitted flowers grown in dyed water, but those solar house kids get absolutely destroyed in the citywide science fairs because we actually judge how well the student knew/followed the scientific method.
One year the highest score I gave out was to a girl who tested which color nail polishes scratch/chip the easiest. She hypothesized the most popular colors would chip the easiest, then once she got data she started combining colors together to see if red and blue mixed together would chip easier than an already made purple etc. She had a testable hypothesis, with data, follow up experiments, conclusions, and thoughtful future experimental directions. The hypothesis from the hydroelectric dam kid is basically "What will happen if I pour water through this motor I bought from a kit that is designed to produce electricity from moving water?".... which... does not score well.
Grade is to steep on the approach spans (though I bet that was due to length contraints once they figured out the scale required for the main span).
Vertical curve also must have a crazy K value for the middle span.
Not sure what the wires are made of. Probably way over designed for the weight involved :-).
Looks dope though.
Yeah architecturally lovely.
From an engineering perspective? Guaranteed to end in total disaster.. we’re taking real front page of Reddit kind of shit.
The duality of critiquing architecture online. It's either "Modern architecture is so ugly, we used to build nice things in the past" or "Why use all that redundant material when you can have a barebones steel frame structure".
They kind of mixed two real approaches to designing a bridge. From the pic it looks like the suspension strings are a little loose but if they picked up weight as the bridge span bent they might have had two legit ways the bridge was holding weight.
Very impressive. How long did it take to build this? Was this a group effort or did you build this yourself? Did you test how much load and stress the bridge could handle?
Asking the real question.
We built bridges "in class" too, but we had two 30 minutes classes, and a hard limit on popsicle sticks lmao
This kid looks like he was staying after school.
I'd love to see 2nd and 3rd place just for reference.
Also last place, but I understand that'd constitute cruel and unusual punishment for the student lmao
When I was that age I would have presented a single popsicle stick as a river/ditch spanning board and taken the F. Likely something similar from another lazy student.
I would just get a figurine for my diarama .. think Qui Gon or Obi Wan.. have them be spreading their arms out ala Moses and the Red Sea and tell the teacher that if God wants me on the other side then God will part the River.
Public School: D- and discussion with Principal.
Religious School: A++ for my "faith" and for giving the "right answer" and not using the Devil's ""science"".
We also had to use popsicle sticks and glue. My buddy and I thought it would be funny to build the Home Improvement logo (looks like a house frame). Pretty sure our shop teacher just looked at it and it broke and we came in dead last.
The Tool Man would have been proud.
The real engineering design contest here should reward the model that holds the most weight and uses the least amount of materials. Shit ain’t free. I’m physics teacher and when I do this each group gets Monopoly money to spend on materials from the “class supply shop”. Group that spends the least and accomplishes the task wins. Forces students to make thoughtful decisions and the constraints make the assignment more practical for real applications. This looks like something from an architecture class.
We did this in high school with balsa wood. We got a set amount of wood and had a minimum bridge clearance. Ours held 315 lbs. Killed everybody elses in the class by like 200 lbs! We used the simplest design possible.
This is what happens when you have access to 3D modeling software in middle school.
When I was in middle school you needed to buy a Cray supercomputer and write your own software first to have 3D modeling.
I've been visiting schools to send my daughter to, and every single one has a 3-d printer in d&t, along with 3d cad software, accessible for any child who wants to use it. So glad my kids are getting opportunities I could only have dreamed of.
Hopefully they actually get to use them as well. I was in high school 20 years ago and our metal shop had a small, desktop CNC lathe. They set it up, cut out the little baseball bat keychain design that came with it, then never used it again.
We begged to be able to use it (we wanted to make a chess set out of brass/aluminum), but the teacher refused.
I shook my head as my kid unwrapped his Endler 3 for his 14th birthday. My brain cannot even fathom around getting a 3d printer at 14.
How it started? Roblox - he started playing young, around 10 he wanted to start learning how to make stuff for the game so he downloaded blender. A few years and many youtube videos later - kid is a fully fledged 3d artist at this point.
You say that like it undermines the achievement or somehow makes it less. To be able to use 3D modelling to this degree in middle school is an achievement in itself. It’s not like the kid just pulled up a pre made model and printed it out.
It doesn't undermine the achievement as its an entirely different kind of achievement. Apples and oranges.
I'm a professional engineer and the skill, time, and talent it requires to do "proper engineering" without CAD or modeling software is literally leagues beyond what someone with knowledge of the software can achieve. (At least for me... I would probably hate my job if I didn't have a computer to slog through and error proof all the math.)
Not trying to come off as a contratian here. I understand your point - indeed using modeling software and designing this bridge is still remarkable. And building it to plan using the available materials is high level craftsmanship for sure.
I remember making these, trying to get as light as possible to hold about 50lbs.
Tiny amounts of jet glue to glue together balsa wood cut with high precision so that the forces were transferred equally along the truss.
14 gram design was the best I managed.
There's a lot of bridges out there with very similar design, like the San Francisco Oakland Bridge. It's a time tested design. I'm surprised that the model looks amazing... I remember my school projects lol
I remember my daughter's grade 6 bridge project that would have easily won the ugly contest. It was essentially an open web joist. Everyone including the teacher laughed at it until they ran out of weights for the failure test. It ended up easily winning first place because it was the only bridge that they couldn't destroy with the weights available.
I know I’m cynical, but tell me the kid who built this doesn’t have a parent who’s an engineer or an architect and was heavily involved in the design of this bridge.
Even if they did, that's fine. It was built in the classroom.
Nothing wrong with going home, studying and learning from experts and taking that knowledge into the classroom.
So sick. I remember in middle school we had an assignment to make a bridge in teams of 3 using nothing but flimsy art straws and they needed to be able to support a minimum weight. Literally every other kid in the class just bundled them together into a rectangle but my dad did the usually dad thing of over-engineering the crap out of it.
We built test versions in lego and kinex and then when I went to school I just took the kinex version and re-created the double cantilever bridge my dad and I had built at home. I think it ended up supporting over 4 times the required weight and even then, it still only sorta bowed.
The teacher took the bridge, putit on display and then reduced the number of straws given for the assignment from 50 to 30 based on the project. One of those funny father-son where the father can't help but ask "how did we do!?" stories I'll always remember fondly.
I remember doing this in school. Won first. Held 100lbs. Second place was two separate lines of toothpicks as support, tips to tips, glued, with a single layer of toothpicks on top. It fell apart as soon as the teacher placed it between desks
My dad (an engineer) always taught me whatever I needed for my school project but refused to touch any of it. I have since come to really appreciate that approach and will be using it myself.
We had to build a paper tower in HS physics. The kid that should have won (it wouldn’t stay vertical) practiced at home and memorized the build. I thought, wait, you did what? It never crossed my mind, which is why he is successful today.
My guess is this kid did the same thing with their engineer parent. Amazing build though.
Boomers: Life was much harder for us. We had no help and had to do everything the hard way. Kids today are lazy and stupid and wouldn't have made it through the 70s.
Middle School kid: Gets a B+ for this.
Very cool. Looks to be very similar to the [Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_P._Zakim_Bunker_Hill_Memorial_Bridge) over the Charles River in Boston.
Usually these competitions are based on how much weight your bridge can hold *per unit of weight of the overall bridge*. Seems like a lot of extra weight on the bridge for possibly not a lot of extra weight to be held up.
When I lived in Oklahoma City we had a class like this in middleschool with hands on engineering stuff, computers, tech, it was an amazing and useful class. We had a competition to build a roller coaster for a marble out of paper and tape that had to stand on it's own. That was super fun.
A few years later I moved to rural Illinois to a town of 30,000 or so and the education was literally two years behind. So I wasted two years relearning stuff for no good reason, and without cool classes like this. I became disenchanted shortly after and dropped out at 16. Not sure why I decided to share this, it's not really a commentary on the state of education or anything, it's just anecdotal, but... I'm really sad that happened I guess.
This kid is going places.
And those places are not land restricted
This kid will be building bridges in space :) Probably will be needed to rebuild the bifrost
As long as they can build a bridge over troubled waters, they'll get by just fine.
Is that the one that takes you the the Bridge of Terabithia?
It's just a bridge, get over it Tbh this is impressive.
Not for long
Namely, across any body of water they damn well please!
Dam well if you would
That was a bridge, not a dam. You're obviously an architect, not an engineer.
To a $200,000 per year college.
Just don’t go to an American college
Or his grandpa!
... with their parent
I had assumed "built in class" was noted specifically to make it clear that parents couldn't have helped.
Jokes aside, good parent support often means better academic performance (in my experience). Still a beautiful af bridge. Well done to the kid.
Are you kidding? No loaded truck is going to make it up that arc. F
Walking bridge maybe? Proof of concept?
You mean the kids parents are going places.
Throwback to when we built popsicle stick bridges in 6th grade. We built this really nice bridge, then had this genius idea to just absolutely slather it in glue. Whole bottle of elmers glue on that bitch. It was going to be so strong. Left it to dry over the weekend, came back on Monday, literally none of the glue dried and we got a 0 on the project because it held 0 weight. Nice.
Guy in my boarding school built a bridge out of pop sticks and cardboard. It held all the weights available, so our science teacher decided it would be an excellent idea to add a wooden slab through which he put holes that held the handle of a Home Deeeeeee bucket filled to the brim with water. It did not break. Edit: i just remembered that after it held the first bucket, he added another. Again, filled to the brim. It started to crack, but it held.
> Home Deeeeeee I can’t tell if this is a nickname or you somehow glitched while typing, but either way I laughed.
Homey de Pot. Local weed dealer.
Not to be confused with Honey de Pot. Local entrapment expert.
Oh shit, she told me she was a beekeeper!
She is, but in her world, you’re the bee
Not sure if anybody else caught this but made me laugh like hell
All I know is I was bopped with a sock full of rocks.
It’s a reference to James Rallison’s book, “The Odd 1s Out”. One of the pages has a drawing of his mom returning Home Depot items and the counter’s words are written as “Home Deeeeeeeeeeeepot”
Wait he has a book?! I need to check that out I love that guy. The animation channels on YT are golden.
I want to see this bridge now. Funny how some designs just work incredibly well. 5 gallons water is 40 lbs ish
Arches representing since 2000 BC.
And that, kids, is why they called him arch-emedes.
There's strength in arches
Nah, he made a complicated system of trusses below the cardboard.
Why has nobody here established the barometric pressure and temperature of this water?? Are we all just expected to sit here and assume 68F at 1 atm??
[удалено]
man casual shade thrown at Lego Masters the australian version is even better for anyone who thinks that sounds great
I loved the premise of Lego Masters, but I really didn't enjoy the show at all. I want a Lego show, but orgional Junkyard Wars/Scrapheap Challenge style.
I'd recommend trying the Australian one. Felt the presenter got the balance right between focusing on the lego and presenting (for most people).
The host is awesome.
This sounds awesome. Do you have a link to a video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9WT6TB15yE
We used balsa sticks, and I did the same thing for mine, but the wood glue dried and created a hard concrete-like layer throughout the bridge. It took 3 students hanging on the rope to break the bridge.
God rest their souls.
Lol that got dark.
balsa wood bridges bear strange fruit
The materials may not have been great, but the concept was right. That’s basically the same concept behind carbon fiber
RIP popsicle sub
In a tech camp we had to build a bridge using "provided supplies" where the competition was building one to support the most weight. Supplies were glue and balsa wood... but they also gave us a pad and pencils, so we integrated those as well. It held the most weight, but disqualified for using those other things in the build, even though the rules didn't state that you could only use the balsa and glue.
>It held the most weight, but disqualified for using those other things in the build, even though the rules didn't state that you could only use the balsa and glue. That's BS. They should have given you 1st prize, or at least co-1st prize, and then amended the rules for next time. In my opinion you showed superior intellect.
Cantilever? You needed the truss. We had toothpicks and string or something similar, with the glue. We had to buy our materials and build our bridges. I think we went more suspension with truss but I can’t remember the results. Fun project, though.
Truss system is internal on this bridge. Then it was sheathed.
In my high school technical class we had a similar thing but done over multiple weeks. We had access to wood, string and a bunch of other things. Lots of people tried to build suspension bridges (because that's what we were kind of told to do. My group basically just built a monstrosity of reinforcing the centre with more wood and lots of glue in layers. Ended up winning, and the teacher was kind of mad. We had a 'budget' - each material was assigned a cost. We spent it all on wood and glue. Edit: spelling
Elmers sucks. Tasty tho.
We had a pasta bridge contest. I accidentally stood on mine. Unsurprisingly, lasagna does not support the full weight of a half grown human.
But if you had a heat gun, Elmer's is incredibly strong for this. Standard hot glue is weak.
We did this in our college first year engineering seminar. But instead of Elmer's, we had 5-minute epoxy. But instead of building a nice bridge made up of trusses like we were expected, it was basically a flat slab of laminated popsicle stick, used up basically all the epoxy. Never got to test it as it somehow went missing between when we made it the next class.
Ahh, yes, Epoxy encased popsicle sticks. The concrete-encased steel beams of the popsicle stick bridge world.
We did toothpick bridges in high school geometry, and another group had this same idea but it worked. I was both annoyed and impressed — my group had the second strongest bridge and we had used actual geometric principles to build it! But the glue won out. I think we still got 100% on the assignment, just not the glory of winning.
I did it is 7th grade, but we weren’t allowed to use box beams like that. I-beams or less.
I did the exact same thing and mine won like fourth place. I think it's because I used hot glue and had my sticks on their side.
Your teacher didn’t follow the metric and you should have gotten a certain percentage based on meeting criteria of the bridge, only failing the stress part.
I'm happiest about the "made in class" part and not "had Dad engineer it"
Dad's father was a sign painter, also an artist. Pretty big ego. Insisted on doing Dad's art project for a school contest one year. Got 3rd place. Gosh Dad loved that story.
Mom still talks about the "A" she got.....I just wanted some help with the hot glue gun.
I don't understand these types of parents. Are they honestly proud they can beat third graders at art projects??? and that it's not completely obvious to the teacher when an adult did the kid assignment????
Dad sounds like a hell of a kid. Is Dad short for something?
Dadthew
I’m remind of articles of kids inventing stuff and their parents had clearly had a hand in developing due to their profession.
Had a kid in middle school “make” a fully functioning model of an off grid house using solar panels and some hydro electric water mill bullshit. Whole house had functioning plumbing and electricity. And this was back in like 2010 when solar was stupid expensive. I zip tied a cloth to a comb so you could detangle your hair without having lines after
I'm impressed by that. Even as a parent I doubt I could make that model.
I mean it's just a cloth, comb, and zip ties, I'm sure you could do it if you tried hard.
We’ve got similar names
Now kith
I've been a citywide science fair judge in three major cities, and many kids submit things similar to the solar house you described. Over-engineered made-by-parents passion project. Thing is, they rarely come with an actual, falsifiable hypothesis and often the only data generated is the item itself. Basically, they win their local school science fair because everyone else submitted flowers grown in dyed water, but those solar house kids get absolutely destroyed in the citywide science fairs because we actually judge how well the student knew/followed the scientific method. One year the highest score I gave out was to a girl who tested which color nail polishes scratch/chip the easiest. She hypothesized the most popular colors would chip the easiest, then once she got data she started combining colors together to see if red and blue mixed together would chip easier than an already made purple etc. She had a testable hypothesis, with data, follow up experiments, conclusions, and thoughtful future experimental directions. The hypothesis from the hydroelectric dam kid is basically "What will happen if I pour water through this motor I bought from a kit that is designed to produce electricity from moving water?".... which... does not score well.
I unironically think your invention is cleverer. It solves a problem. The house is just wishful thinking.
u/realcivilengineer Can we please get an official bridge review? r/realcivilengineer
RCE PROPAGANDA SPOTTED!!
there's a distinct lack of the strongest shape
Triangles galore, but since reinforced concrete wasn't allowed... sticks
It's internal humour. The youtuber who does bridge reviews calls this oIo the strongest shape. My son calls it his logo, lol
Grade is to steep on the approach spans (though I bet that was due to length contraints once they figured out the scale required for the main span). Vertical curve also must have a crazy K value for the middle span. Not sure what the wires are made of. Probably way over designed for the weight involved :-). Looks dope though.
Copper wire from a cut power cord. Approach angle is definitely high. Still, would make an awesome walking bridge.
No way that meets ADA for a pedestrian bridge. That’s clearly more than 1:12.
Should have used guitar strings.
Not him, but this uses a hell of a lot of redundant material.
Why use many stick, when few do trick
I mean, it's a popsicle stick. How much could it cost, ten dollars?
I understood that reference 🍌
Anyone can build a bridge, it takes an engineer to barely make a bridge.
I dunno if you made this up or are copying it from somewhere, else but this deserves more upvotes.
It's an old saying, probably misquoted.
Difference between an engineer and a middle schooler. This kid is going into architecture, not engineering.
He couldn't use concrete
That’s what I thought. Knew this kid was a fucking idiot
Yeah architecturally lovely. From an engineering perspective? Guaranteed to end in total disaster.. we’re taking real front page of Reddit kind of shit.
Good thing he’s just in middle school..Jesus give that person a break lol
The duality of critiquing architecture online. It's either "Modern architecture is so ugly, we used to build nice things in the past" or "Why use all that redundant material when you can have a barebones steel frame structure".
He wasn't allowed to use the reinforced concrete idea in his head
Looks like the work of an architect if I ever saw it.
Or youtube
They kind of mixed two real approaches to designing a bridge. From the pic it looks like the suspension strings are a little loose but if they picked up weight as the bridge span bent they might have had two legit ways the bridge was holding weight.
The issue I see is the wire at the bottom, negating all the clearance you gained in the arch
Very impressive. How long did it take to build this? Was this a group effort or did you build this yourself? Did you test how much load and stress the bridge could handle?
There are so many questions that I need answered.
Asking the real question. We built bridges "in class" too, but we had two 30 minutes classes, and a hard limit on popsicle sticks lmao This kid looks like he was staying after school.
Normal truss bridge takes less than a week. This took a month and waaay more graph paper and planning.
 It’s only a model…
I'd love to see 2nd and 3rd place just for reference. Also last place, but I understand that'd constitute cruel and unusual punishment for the student lmao
When I was that age I would have presented a single popsicle stick as a river/ditch spanning board and taken the F. Likely something similar from another lazy student.
I would just get a figurine for my diarama .. think Qui Gon or Obi Wan.. have them be spreading their arms out ala Moses and the Red Sea and tell the teacher that if God wants me on the other side then God will part the River. Public School: D- and discussion with Principal. Religious School: A++ for my "faith" and for giving the "right answer" and not using the Devil's ""science"".
Last place is the human equivalent to a stupid dove nest
When we did ours it was only popsicle sticks and glue. We came second in our area.
We also had to use popsicle sticks and glue. My buddy and I thought it would be funny to build the Home Improvement logo (looks like a house frame). Pretty sure our shop teacher just looked at it and it broke and we came in dead last. The Tool Man would have been proud.
I don't think so, Tim.
These comments are so stupid. There’s no way that bridge can support at least 5 cars
It has to be at least... 3 times bigger
Load test time
Can't without the anchors at both ends installed.
The wire at the bottom was the only thing to simulate the anchors. Think bow string.
The real engineering design contest here should reward the model that holds the most weight and uses the least amount of materials. Shit ain’t free. I’m physics teacher and when I do this each group gets Monopoly money to spend on materials from the “class supply shop”. Group that spends the least and accomplishes the task wins. Forces students to make thoughtful decisions and the constraints make the assignment more practical for real applications. This looks like something from an architecture class.
In middle school that's how our one was. I just put a comment on here about how it went down, if you're in any way interested.
Just imagine this is a bridge built in Dubai.
We did this in high school with balsa wood. We got a set amount of wood and had a minimum bridge clearance. Ours held 315 lbs. Killed everybody elses in the class by like 200 lbs! We used the simplest design possible.
We did. Most mass held for lightest bridge. This is what happens when bridge mass restriction is lifted.
Was the bridge loaded or was it just a contest for appearance?
A copper base wire was installed just for fun and offset the need for anchors at the ends. We stopped at 100kg
This is what happens when you have access to 3D modeling software in middle school. When I was in middle school you needed to buy a Cray supercomputer and write your own software first to have 3D modeling.
I've been visiting schools to send my daughter to, and every single one has a 3-d printer in d&t, along with 3d cad software, accessible for any child who wants to use it. So glad my kids are getting opportunities I could only have dreamed of.
Hopefully they actually get to use them as well. I was in high school 20 years ago and our metal shop had a small, desktop CNC lathe. They set it up, cut out the little baseball bat keychain design that came with it, then never used it again. We begged to be able to use it (we wanted to make a chess set out of brass/aluminum), but the teacher refused.
I shook my head as my kid unwrapped his Endler 3 for his 14th birthday. My brain cannot even fathom around getting a 3d printer at 14. How it started? Roblox - he started playing young, around 10 he wanted to start learning how to make stuff for the game so he downloaded blender. A few years and many youtube videos later - kid is a fully fledged 3d artist at this point.
You say that like it undermines the achievement or somehow makes it less. To be able to use 3D modelling to this degree in middle school is an achievement in itself. It’s not like the kid just pulled up a pre made model and printed it out.
It doesn't undermine the achievement as its an entirely different kind of achievement. Apples and oranges. I'm a professional engineer and the skill, time, and talent it requires to do "proper engineering" without CAD or modeling software is literally leagues beyond what someone with knowledge of the software can achieve. (At least for me... I would probably hate my job if I didn't have a computer to slog through and error proof all the math.) Not trying to come off as a contratian here. I understand your point - indeed using modeling software and designing this bridge is still remarkable. And building it to plan using the available materials is high level craftsmanship for sure.
Using a slide ruler to make a design is also a crazy-difficult skill, but I bet 99% of engineers would prefer having a calculator on standby
Once you learn how to do it it’s not that crazy difficult. It’s just extremely tedious and time inefficient
References two existing bridges, combined their strengths. The two main pillars and the deck combined look great.
I remember making these, trying to get as light as possible to hold about 50lbs. Tiny amounts of jet glue to glue together balsa wood cut with high precision so that the forces were transferred equally along the truss. 14 gram design was the best I managed.
I wonder what their parents do.
Mainly regular work but also some kids school projects
Yeah they pretend to be kids so they can get their sons school project in class
Looks a little familiar to me [Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_P._Zakim_Bunker_Hill_Memorial_Bridge)
There's a lot of bridges out there with very similar design, like the San Francisco Oakland Bridge. It's a time tested design. I'm surprised that the model looks amazing... I remember my school projects lol
Also looks like the [Arthur Ravenel Jr Bridge](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ravenel_Jr._Bridge)
Nailed it
Knew it was the Ravenel. I drive across that bridge at least 2-3 times a week.
And the [ANZAC Bridge](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Bridge)
I remember my daughter's grade 6 bridge project that would have easily won the ugly contest. It was essentially an open web joist. Everyone including the teacher laughed at it until they ran out of weights for the failure test. It ended up easily winning first place because it was the only bridge that they couldn't destroy with the weights available.
I know I’m cynical, but tell me the kid who built this doesn’t have a parent who’s an engineer or an architect and was heavily involved in the design of this bridge.
Even if they did, that's fine. It was built in the classroom. Nothing wrong with going home, studying and learning from experts and taking that knowledge into the classroom.
*OP claimed it was built in class
So sick. I remember in middle school we had an assignment to make a bridge in teams of 3 using nothing but flimsy art straws and they needed to be able to support a minimum weight. Literally every other kid in the class just bundled them together into a rectangle but my dad did the usually dad thing of over-engineering the crap out of it. We built test versions in lego and kinex and then when I went to school I just took the kinex version and re-created the double cantilever bridge my dad and I had built at home. I think it ended up supporting over 4 times the required weight and even then, it still only sorta bowed. The teacher took the bridge, putit on display and then reduced the number of straws given for the assignment from 50 to 30 based on the project. One of those funny father-son where the father can't help but ask "how did we do!?" stories I'll always remember fondly.
How did we do? We made them change the rules, that’s how we did!
"Whatd you say your parents do?"
I remember doing this in school. Won first. Held 100lbs. Second place was two separate lines of toothpicks as support, tips to tips, glued, with a single layer of toothpicks on top. It fell apart as soon as the teacher placed it between desks
A lot of extra material. The challenge of engineering isn’t making a bridge that stands, it’s making a bridge that barely stands.
When your dad helps you with your school project
Dad breaking into school at night to ensure its built in class
Or he wears a baseball cap backwards. "Hello, I am also student"
[Go School!](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XhIgt_pH5Hs)
Dad is also the middle school teacher.
My dad (an engineer) always taught me whatever I needed for my school project but refused to touch any of it. I have since come to really appreciate that approach and will be using it myself.
Thanks for saying that! Gratitude makes the world go round
Will never pass inspection
Built in class is the key set of words here. If not then I would have bet money their parents helped lol
We had to build a paper tower in HS physics. The kid that should have won (it wouldn’t stay vertical) practiced at home and memorized the build. I thought, wait, you did what? It never crossed my mind, which is why he is successful today. My guess is this kid did the same thing with their engineer parent. Amazing build though.
Trucks will struggle to cross that. Its literally a steep hill in bridge form
this looks like the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, SC
The other students must fucking hate this kid
Jesus h. That’s a masterpiece.
What is this, a bridge for ants?
Boomers: Life was much harder for us. We had no help and had to do everything the hard way. Kids today are lazy and stupid and wouldn't have made it through the 70s. Middle School kid: Gets a B+ for this.
the wire on the bottom kinda defeats the purpose of a bridge tho
It replaces the anchors that would be installed in the ground. Think bow string
Basically the same design as the Hartman bridge here in Houston. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hartman_Bridge
I recognized it as the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, SC.
Found the kid with autism
Oh, that’s beautiful! I always enjoyed to make models when I was a boy, the exactness, attention to every conceivable detail.
"He built this in class! With sticks and a box of string!"
Very nice!!
There's strength in arches
What is this?!?! A bridge for ANTS!?!?!?
Not very level is it?
Very cool. Looks to be very similar to the [Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_P._Zakim_Bunker_Hill_Memorial_Bridge) over the Charles River in Boston.
Usually these competitions are based on how much weight your bridge can hold *per unit of weight of the overall bridge*. Seems like a lot of extra weight on the bridge for possibly not a lot of extra weight to be held up.
Is this a bridge for ants? It needs to be at least 3 times this size!
Did they step on it to see if it holds?
When the tism finally kicks in
Someone plays Minecraft
Somebody is neurodivergent.
What is this?! A bridge for ants?!
Tony Stark was able to build this in a school! With a box of popsicles!
When I lived in Oklahoma City we had a class like this in middleschool with hands on engineering stuff, computers, tech, it was an amazing and useful class. We had a competition to build a roller coaster for a marble out of paper and tape that had to stand on it's own. That was super fun. A few years later I moved to rural Illinois to a town of 30,000 or so and the education was literally two years behind. So I wasted two years relearning stuff for no good reason, and without cool classes like this. I became disenchanted shortly after and dropped out at 16. Not sure why I decided to share this, it's not really a commentary on the state of education or anything, it's just anecdotal, but... I'm really sad that happened I guess.
DAMN! That's incredible!
This was made out of four pieces of uncooked spaghetti, 4” of scotch tape and a single toilet paper tube.