Saterday Navoember 5 2009

Today I was able to get a gage to use to measure the amount of deflection that the bridges will create while they are under the pressure of the loads. This gage will be placed on top of each bridge wile they are being tested and they will help in the final results to find the bridges weight bearing capacity.

Friday December 4 2009

No luck in finding a weight set to test bridges yet.

Tuesday December 1 2009

All bridges have no been completed and they are all ready for testing. The arch bridge was difficult to construct but I made the bridge but first crating the arch then placing push pins at several points along the arch. The arch bridge contains 3 pieces of bass wood on both faces of the bridge.

The next objective is to test them but before i do so, I will obtain a gage(used to measure the deflection created by the bridges them selves during the process of testing). A set of testing weights in pounds as well as a scale for the weighting of the bridges in pounds must all be used before the actual testing.

november 28 2009

The bridges have been finished on paper and I have a total of 6 bridges on paper to be constructed. The first bridge I will begin to construct is the Pratt truss. I plan to create one bridge in a day and let it dry over night and tomorrow when they have completely dried I will join the two faces of the bridges.

November 27 2009

Today I purchased all the materials and began working on the actual designing of the bridges. The bridge faces will be constructed on a 16" by 6" piece of paper. The bridges that I decided to do include the arch bridge, Pratt truss, warren truss, my own designed truss bridge as well as a rigid frame and a plain girder beam bridge. After they are drawn on paper I will begin to cut and place the pieces of Basswood in the correct placement.

November 25 2009

Today I completed the first group of slides that introduce the project these slides include the

• Introduction
• hypothesis
• question problem
• materials
• variables
• procedure

Next step is to purchase the materials and begin to construct the bridges.

November 24 2009 - Day 1

November 24, 2009 marks the first day in the beginning of a new science fair experiment. Today a group of students and I visited Dr. Yildirim at the University of Texas at Austin's Civil Engineering Department. He will be guiding us through the creation of our project as we journey through them. During our meeting we discussed the several projects that the group of students and I will be taking on in the next couple of weeks. As of today I have begun to think of how I may be able to further improve my previous Bridge project, if not collaborate it with a new more advanced study of the effects of bridge design on their weight bearing capacity. My goal for this week is to begin and complete building these bridges so that I am able to test them as soon as possible. During this process I will update this blog with new pictures and information on my research and my current position on this project.