...Structure?...

              
     As our first day of regular class time, our physics teacher decided to do an activity that involved building a structure using only 5 sheets of newspaper and a roll of tape that was as long as our desks. the goal was that the structure should be as tall as you can make it and at the same time, be stable enough to stand. (And no, taping the end of the structure to the desk was not allowed  .) So anyways...

    ♦ My group (total of 3) decided that what was most important for this structure to be able to stand was for it to have a  good base. One that was bigger than the rest of its body and also strong enough for it to be able to carry the entire weight of the structure. Our base was basically 1 page of the newspaper, folded in half, and folded into the form of a rectangle. (we thought about and tried doing a triangle first but we couldn't figure out how so we just went with the next best thing) what we did next was add 2 more papers (same shape), that were smaller in width (or in this case diameter since our rectangles weren't exactly rectangles) than the one before to make the bottom as strong as possible. On the last one, we pinched the 2 corners, and ended up with a very small hole, just big enough to fit the 2 attached tubes (which we made by rolling up the paper). This added lots of height to our structure but it wasn't until one more thing to it that it ended up being the tallest out of the entire class (out of 8 others). After everything the only thing that was left was a very long strip of paper that we had cut from the previous paper that we used at the beginning. My partner had the smart idea of just folding it in half and just sticking it inside the tube. that added about a good 30cm to the total height of our structure and made us th winning team of the activity!!!                 hehe. 


    ♣ So in the end, we learned that the most important thing to a tall structure is the base and the fact that the higher you go the less weight you need to add to the structure. If you follow this I can guarantee you a  total success in your tower!!! 

BTW. As i was searching through the internet for a picture i found a link to a conversation about the same activity. if you're interested in whats being said here's the link: http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-56925.html