Last week we were able to come up with two different designs for our bridge, but from the testing we all agreed that we should use the bridge Skip designed. It's performance was really good and we worked on some changes to make it cheaper so I think we are ready for the competition. The one I designed seemed good but when tested it would not hold more than 7 pounds. Even that I made some changes still is not as good as the other bridge Skip designed. I think we are going to be one of the teams with a good ratio weight/cost.
I learned a lot from this course. I learned a lot about truss bridges. I learned how and where is necessary to use triangles and where is not. I learned that the center of the bridge should always be the strongest part of the bridge. I also learned a simple way how forces are distributed. I learned how to use WPBD software which helps a lot in calculating the cost of a bridge and distribute the forces. The best thing about this course I think was the fact that we had to make a strong bridge but not forgetting the cost. From that I learned a lot about how construction industry works in real life. The competition with other teams made it really competitive.
I'm really happy with what I learned into this course and I think some of the things I learned here are going to help me majoring as a civil engineer.
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