How Much Can Your Balsa Wood Bridge Hold?

On Friday Dec. 9, students from Mr. Stimson's physics classes enjoyed a relaxing day on the grass testing their own carefully-constructed balsa wood bridges.

Even though the testing sounded carefree, the construction was quite the opposite. Using only 51-feet of flexible balsa wood, students had to create a bridge that would withstand a 10 lb weight exerted from the top of the bridge.

James Stocks, junior, describes how he felt when his bridge was being tested. "I felt nervous. I knew my bridge was going to withstand the weight because I tested my design before and I knew my design was not flawed. I put my time and effort into it and had a different design than everyone else."

Building the bridges individually was just one aspect of the project, but Craig Spiller, junior, believes that learning from other peoples designs was important for all. "I liked seeing all the creativity people put into their bridges because it makes them think and it gives them another way of understanding physics," Spiller says.

"Instead of just using a formula and writing it down on another piece of paper, you actually have to think and it takes time and effort," Stocks says. "I think it made us think outside the box."

The project not only tested the students' skills in constructing a bridge, it allowed them to understand more about the science behind physics. "I got to learn how physics actually works. Instead of just theorizing it on a piece of paper, you get to see how it works in person," Stocks says.

"Making bridges made me think differently than other assignments because it was a real world application of physics, and was more first hand learning experience because it wasn't just a diagram."

Although the assignment was fairly difficult, Stocks believes that "the quality of work you put in, you recieve."