Process

Here is the process that we used to create a 150 gram bridge that supports over 300 pounds.  Again, this bridge won 3rd place in the Destination Imagination International Bridge Building Competition held in Knoxville Tennessee in May 2005.

Our goal was to go through each step of this process quickly and to videotape our test results.  Going through the process quickly meant we could learn quickly by building lots of bridges.  Videotaping our results let us record and understand what was happening.

Each step in our process is a separate section in this website.  Let’s briefly review the steps.

Materials

First, we had to buy the materials.  The materials were easy to find, since they were stocked at a chain of nearby hobby shops.  This meant we could get whatever we needed quickly.  But although we could get the wood quickly, the hobby shops stocked no pieces longer than 36”, so this limited our bridge size.

Design

Next we had to design our bridge.  The design is very simple, having only 6 joints on each side.  The simple design meant we could construct our bridge easily and quickly.

Build

Next we had to build the bridge.  Our bridge building process had two slow steps: gluing the members together to create the sides, and gluing the sides together to create a bridge.  Since the glue took 12 hours to partially dry and 24 hours to dry completely, that meant we could complete the two steps in less than 2 days.

Test

Next we had to test the bridge.  We created a tester similar to the one at the contest.  That meant we knew how we’d do at the competition.

Analyze

Next we analyzed how well our bridge did.  We set up video cameras around the tester to record how the bridge broke.  Watching the videotapes afterwards meant that the problems were easy to see.

Repeat

Then we went back to the first step and started a new bridge using what we had learned.