What
can be learnt from this activity?
How
structures can be formed.
What
shapes make stronger structures?
How
weaker materials can be made stronger with well-designed structures.
How
the weight of something (the mass) can affect the balance of a structure.
Learn which
is stronger a tall tower or a short one.
About
Civil engineers who are involved in the design of public works like
large buildings, roads, bridges, water distribution systems, dams and so on.
Other
things you can try...
You
could try changing the materials and see which ones are stronger. Instead
of using cocktail sticks try spaghetti, instead of marshmallows try raisins,
sweets like jelly babies, wooden skewers, grapes anything really. You
could also try cutting bigger marshmallows up instead of using mini ones, but
this can be very sticky so be prepared with baby wipes and bins or bin bags nearby.
What material combination makes the strongest tower? Can you think of
any other materials you could use?
You
could also make several towers using different designs and see which ones stay
up the longest while holding a hardboiled egg on top or you could see if
the structure can hold the egg for a minute. For this experiment you will
need a stop watch as well.
Or
you can play who can make the tallest tower if there are more than one of
you. For this you will need a tape measure or metre ruler.
To
make the last two experiments fair it is best to use the same amount of
materials for each tower and if using spaghetti use the same brand.
Another
thing you could try is to design your structure on paper before constructing
your tower.
Famous
civil Engineers
French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel (1832–1923) is
most well-known for building the Eiffel Tower in Paris. He was an expert in
aerodynamics and built many bridges so understood the importance of making the
Eiffel tower strong enough to withstand strong winds being so tall. To
ensure it was strong enough to he used a lot of maths to work out what the
design of the tower needed to be.
The Eiffel Tower for the Paris World's Fair of 1889, which honoured the
100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The World's Fair or Universal
Exposition of 1889 (Exposition Universelle de 1889) was a highly successful
international exhibition and its central attraction was the Eiffel Tower, a
300-meter high marvel of iron by Gustave Eiffel.
We do this with Magnetex, we'll have to try it with marshmallows. It'll be like pick your own strawberries though. One for the construction and one in the mouth!!
ReplyDeleteOh yes! Yummy science lol!
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