Week 6

After working with the K'nex pieces in class during week 5, my original opinion of the difference between K'nex and WPBD has not changed.  I still feel that there are far fewer variations that can be made using the K'nex pieces.  In relation to designing a bridge out of steel to span 20 feet, the K'nex pieces will still have far fewer possibilities because the steel can be welded and/or bolted to the gusset plates in order to form any desired angle.  The K'nex are only able to meet at 45 degree angles.  Overall, the process for both types of design will be similar, but more thought needs to be put into the 20 foot steel bridge before production because it is not a matter of snapping pieces in and out of connectors to change the design.

Last week, our time was devoted to designing and informally testing a bridge made out of K'nex.  We reviewed the three designs which were created in the previous week and compiled the best elements of each design to be incorporated into our group design.  We found that all three designs were very similar with slight variations in member length.  We chose to go with the smaller members in order to maintain more structural integrity. 

This week our goal is to test our bridge and analyze the results of how the bridge failed and under how much weight.  This will allow us to determine a cost to weight ratio which we will be able to compare to other groups in the class.