Toothpick+Bridge+of+Boss

be impossible?
 * TOOTHPICK TOWER OF TERROR ** ** THAT'S REALLY A BRIDGE **
 * Area of Interactions: ** Human Ingenuity
 * Unit Question: ** How can I accomplish what seems to


 * Using the Design Cycle and a box of toothpicks, create a bridge that meets the following requirements: **
 * Your bridge should cross over an index card.
 * Your bridge should be 4 - 5 inches high.
 * Your bridge should 3 - 4 inches wide.
 * Your bridge should hold at least 50 pounds.



For the Investigate step, we looked at many different types of bridges and considered which would be easier to build with toothpicks and which would be the most successful. We ultimately decided on a type of truss bridge made of many triangles, because it is strong, well structured and supported, relatively easy to create out of toothpicks, and holds a lot of weight. We found this by researching myriad kinds of bridges on the internet and comparing them with what supplies we had and the time we had to make the bridge; in the end we selected the one that fit the criteria the best.
 * Investigate **

We made a design of our bridge on a paper, sketching the shape of our truss and the triangles we were going to use. We decided to make each triangle out of three sides each of three toothpicks glued together lengthwise. We modified this design a little bit during the construction to fit what would work best, but mostly we stuck to our plan. The plan helped us to complete the project the best way we could, a way that has been proven to be successful (based on our research).
 * Plan **

During the create process, we started from the basics. Since we needed a basic unit to connect together into triangles to make our truss, and we thought using single toothpicks would be too weak, we glued triples of three toothpicks together lengthwise until we had quite a few of those. Then, we connected these into the structure of our bridge we had planned. Sometimes it was difficult to create a shape we wanted, and we also had to figure out how we were going to create the base of the bridge (the place where someone would walk). These required us to use creative troubleshooting.
 * Create **

Our bridge held 440 pounds. We were really happy with this, as it was well over the required amount of pounds, and it was constructed really well and sturdily. We didn't quite meet some of the requirements, such as the height and not touching an index card underneath it, but mostly it was great. If we could go back and change it, we would modify it to more fully meet the requirements, and make sure we kept it the same basic structure. However, we were overall pretty happy with it because it was well built and held a lot of weight.
 * Evaluate **

Here are some pictures of our bridge: