by Behka Koontz

During the last weeks of October, the students of Steve Baier’s physics classes of Atlantic High School paired up to make bridges.  Given three manila folders and Elmer’s glue, the students were told to make 60 cm long bridges.  The students learned about three different styles of bridge structures, and they were open to using any of the three.  On the day of testing, many different structures showed up, but the requirements were the same.  The bridges had to hold 6 kilograms of weight (13 lbs), be at least 11 centimeters wide (4.3 in), 10 centimeters tall (3.9 in)  and 60 centimeters long (23.6 in).

Most of the bridges met the requirements or even exceeded them by a small amount.  However, there were a few outliers.

The leading bridge was built by International Bridges Company (senior Luke Karamitros and junior Francesco Castellani).  The bridge by International Bridges Company held 14.4 g (about 31.7 pounds) until it collapsed.  The close second place went to Pizza Ranch Company (seniors Josh Perkins and Jared Coder) whose bridge held 14kg (about 30.8 pounds).

However, not all outliers are good outliers.  The sorrowful last place was awarded to Dumb and Dumber Company (Behka Koontz and Zoe Krueger) whose bridge only held 2kg (about 4.4 lbs).

In addition to winning and losing, many students came away with more knowledge of the bridges, which make up our infrastructure, and a greater appreciation for the engineers that design these bridges.