Wednesday, 8/25/10. 1st Class Summary.

We were given the task to build an object out of  newspaper and tape capable of supporting a cinder-block. After some chicken-scratch and conceptual doodles to work out my thoughts, I went to work and produced the structure in the image. My plan for its construction was to have 4 pieces of rolled up newspaper function as vertical supports, these were braced on the inside by bunched-up newspaper, in case the weight applied had been enough to collapse them. The supports were also reinforced with tape on the outside, to prevent them from bowing out and to contain the bunched-up innards.

Even though the motivating principle was "the taller the better", I decided to go with a more stable/reliable structure because in my opinion a tall support isn't a great choice if it collapses easily.

The structure performed admirably in the cinder block test, and even held up to the weight of a person standing on it, although the latter wasn't fully accounted for in construction and resulted in some questionable torquing of the structure.