Technical Report Project #

Abstract

A group of us came together to build a tower that could handle weight and pressure

pushed down on it. What we wanted to get out of this project is how to create a structure that can be sturdy and thin at once. To accomplish our task, the five of us assembled a cluster of materials including printing paper, scotch tape, and scissors. Together, we then assembled ideas and plans towards the project. We needed to have an idea of what the structure would look like also how it would be built, the cost of materials, the times we could meet as a group, and how each person was going to put their part into the project. With the help of research from the internet, we were able to get an idea of what we should be doing and focusing on during the designing and building stage. The five of us began on several ideas before we would reach our final design. We agreed on a rolled paper method that would have rolled up paper stacked on top of each other. The idea would give the project more weight than it needs to be, but it would help give our base and the rest of the tower more support.The tower’s goals were reached during testing, but more thought

was put onto the plan of the project after. During testing, the tower was able to hold over 9,200 grams of weight and finished 5th in the class for efficiency points. Our group discovered the goal should have been to make the tower as stable as possible then focusing on how much weight it could hold. If we were tested again, the structure of our tower would change. Overall, our group was able to accomplish to build a well-built tower.

Table of Contents

Page 1: Title Page

Page 2: Abstract

Page 3: Table of Contents

Page 4: Introduction

Page 5: Background

Page 6: Methodology

Page 7: Results

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Introduction

We were giving this project to build a load bearing tower that could hold a considerable

amount of weight. The tower had to be over 3 feet in height and was limited to a base of

144cm^2 which for the height to base ratio it was not a nice mixture for a well-balanced tower. The tower could only be mad of standard white printer paper and be held together with ¾ scotch tape. We had no limit to the amount of paper and tape we could use but our tower would be judged on efficiency so the weight of the tower to how much weight the tower held.

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Background

In the load bearing project, each group had to build a paper tower. The requirements were

that the tower had to have a base no larger than 144cm^2, the tower had to be 3 feet tall, and the tower could only be made of basic printer paper and scotch tape. There were no weight restrictions. Just about all of the other groups stuck with the cylinder shape tower with 1 base, except one of the groups. That group had 4 separate bases that added up to 144cm^2, making it much more stable.

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Methodology

Gather materials; this includes: 8.5” x 11” 20 pound white printer paper, and ¾ scotch

tape. Roll the pieces of paper into tight cylinders because we researched that a cylinder of paper has a very high compression or buckle strength so it was the ideal shape. We rolled four cylinders into one larger cylinder and then we rolled the four larger cylinders into a single larger oval structure, and then we finally took four of the larger structures and taped them together to create a layer of our tower. As our tower increased in height our tower structure got smaller and smaller which was a tapered design or others might call it a “Birthday Cake” design because of the way that it looks. The thought process behind this is that with a tapered design the top of the tower would be smaller than the base so that the ratio at the bottom would be larger so it would be balanced better since we were limited to a 144cm^2. Our base was 10cm x 12cm so we were well within the boundaries of the limit. Our tower had four individual sections which was just short of 3ft so we made a platform on the top of the tower to make up for the height and also to make a sturdy place to place the weights. The cylinders at the base were wrapped a lot tighter and more of them were included in the base because we wanted to make sure that we had a very solid base to help with balance. In between the individual sections of the tower we placed

support beams which I would describe as a tongue and groove design because they interlocked the sections together and made them more stable all the way up the tower.

Results

The group’s results for the load bearing tower project were overall pretty well, although

the tower weighed a lot. The tower had a height of 3 feet and 1/3 inches. The tower also had abase of 10cm by 12cm. The tower weighed 1293 grams and it held 9281.46 grams which gave the group a 0.6 efficiency rating. The tower held a relatively good deal of weight, but the tower weighed a lot therefore bringing the efficiency rating down. The tower could have held even more weight, but as most of the other groups could agree on, it was tough to balance all of that weight on such a small base