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Pasta Bridge

The goal of this project is to build a pasta bridge which supports as much weight as possible. To make a pasta bridge as strong as possible you want the pasta members to be under compression or tension, with minimal bending, since this is how materials can best resist forces. The figure below shows one such idea for a design. This is based on a high school woodworking project in which the winner built an incredibly strong bridge out of wood, similar to the design shown below.



A useful tip: When gluing the pasta members together, clamp them at the joint location to achieve as much joint strength as possible. But don't clamp so hard that the pasta breaks.

Also, use cross bracing to prevent buckling of the pasta members under compression.

You can also look on the internet to see what designs other people have used in their pasta bridge projects. Build simple to make, small versions to test out different basic designs, and then based on what works best build the final scaled up version for use in the project.



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