Strong Bridge?

An exploration of factors affecting beam bridge strength

ENGAGE

You use bridges every day. We need bridges to cross obstacles like streams, rivers, other
roads, and railroad tracks. Bridges make it easier to get from place to place without
having to make long detours. Think of all the bridges you have crossed. What features
do they have? What does a bridge need to do when you are crossing it? Imagine that you
have been hired to conduct an investigation that will explore the best bridge design to
cross a river in your community. Remember, you must consider many factors including
distance, load and construction material when determining the design of your bridge.

EXPLORE

Any bridge design must support its own weight and any additional load put on it. You
and your partners will first explore the how the material from which a beam bridge is
constructed impacts the amount of additional load the beam can hold without failing.
You will then explore other variables that impact bridge strength. Lastly, you will
analyze your results and present your findings to the community.

GET READY

You will first need to recall what you know about the forces that act on a bridge when a
load is placed on it. In addition, think about what you know regarding the various types
of bridges. What are some examples of what a beam bridge might look like? What
materials are best for building a beam bridge?
Gather the following materials.

6 drinking straws
masking tape
scissors
1 piece each of paper, cardboard and balsa wood for the beam
2 large paper clips
ruler
paper cup
metal washers or pennies

EXPERIMENT #1 – Effect of Material on the Amount of Load a Beam Can Hold

In this investigation you will be using a simple beam bridge construction to test the affect
of the material a beam is made of on the amount of load the beam can hold. Described
below is a method of constructing a simple beam bridge.

1. First we will construct two support towers. To do this, cut a 3.5 centimeters long
piece of straw. Tape two full length straws together at the top. Place your 3.5 cm
section of straw between the bottoms of the two full sized straws, then tape the three
straws together at the bottom. This should look like a narrow triangle. Repeat to
make the second tower.
2. Tape one tower to the side of a desk, chair or stack of books this is high enough that
you can hang your paper clip and paper cup from a beam spanning the opening. Tape
the second tower to another object of the same height. Position the towers about 20
centimeters apart.
 3. You have various materials that you can use to make a beam bridge between these
two towers. However, you are not allowed to tape your beam to the desk. Try to
come up with another material not listed above that you could test as well

4. To see how much weight your simple beam bridge can support make a load tester.
To do this, unbend a large paper clip into a V-shape. Put the ends of the paper clip
through opposite sides of the paper cup close to the rim. (See figure above at the
right). Use the other paper clip to hang the load tester from the center of your beam
bridge. By adding pennies or small washers to the plastic cup, you can measure the
load acting on the beam.. You can keep track of the number washers, or you can find
the mass of a single washer and keep track of the total mass needed for beam failure.

Conduct Your Experiment

1. Identify the question you will investigate.
2. Predict, based on your experiences, which materials will produce the strongest and weakness
beam bridge.
3. Design a procedure to collect data to answer your research question. Identify the
independent and dependent variables in your experiment. Think about the parts of your
experiment that should be kept constant so you can collect consistent data.
4. Write your procedure in your science notebook. Include enough detail so that you or
someone else could repeat your experiment. For example, be sure to say what you consider
“beam failure”.
5. Create a data table to record data related to your experiment.
6. Do your experiment and record your findings in your data table.
7. Think about the data you have collected. Do the data for each trial seem reasonable? If not,
do you need to repeat any trials to correct any errors?
8. Analyze the data. Make a graph, if appropriate.
9. Interpret the data. Write your conclusions in your science notebook.
10. Compare your experimental design and results with others in your class.

Engineers often chose materials like concrete and steel to build bridges because they are strong
materials. However, there are things that one can do to any given materials that will make it even
stronger or weaker. For example, builders often add rebar to concrete for reinforcement.
In addition to the properties of the materials you investigated in experiment #1, what other
properties do you think might influence the strength of a beam bridge?
Experiment #2 Effect of beam shape or beam mass on the amount of load a beam can hold without failing.

Design and conduct an experiment to explore one of these factors (beam shape or beam
mass). Keep a detailed and organized record of your experimental design, data collection
and analysis in your science notebook.

1. What ideas do you have about the way in which beam mass or beam shape might
affect the amount of load a beam can hold without failing? Discuss your ideas and
predictions with your partners.
2. Identify the question you will investigate and the results you predict.
3. Design a procedure to collect data to answer your research question. Identify the
independent and dependent variables in your experiment. Think about the parts of
your experiment that should be kept constant so you can collect consistent data.
4. Write your procedure in your science notebook. Include enough detail so that you or
someone else could repeat your experiment.
5. Create a data table to record data related to your experiment.
6. Do your experiment and record your findings in your data table.
7. Think about the data you have collected. Do the data for each trial seem generally
consistent? If not, do you need to repeat any trials to correct any errors?
8. Analyze the data. Show your calculations in your science notebook.
9. Graph your analyzed data. Think about the most appropriate type of graph to show a
relationship between two variables.
10. Interpret the data. Based on your experiment, what conclusions can you make about
the effect of beam shape or mass on the amount of load a beam can hold?
11. Share and compare your results with others in your class. How were they alike?
How were they different?
Communicate Your Findings
Use the findings from your beam mass or beam shape experiment to make
recommendations regarding your community’s bridge building project. Talk with your
partners about what design features involving beam shape or mass should be incorporated
to maximize the amount of load the bridge can hold.

Write a Report:
Write a report for your community’s planning board describing your to recommendations
for maximizing the new bridge’s strength.
Your report should include:
• a clear statement of the problem you investigated;
• a description of the experiments you carried out;
• the results of your experiments (including data presented in the form of charts,
tables or graphs);
• your conclusions from the experiments;
• comments about how experimental errors may have affected your results; and
a recommendation to the planning board about design features associated with your
investigation that should be incorporated into the bridge design.