Spaghetti Bridge anyone.............

[lcmtam86]

HELP.........................Anyone out there have to make a spaghetti brigde out of spaghetti and dried beans????

DS (11yr old) has a project that is due on 10/21 and we just spent 3 hours and did not accomplish a thing.....all we did was get very frustrated and she is near tears...................... Is this how we are to spend "quality time" with our children? She is crying and we are frustrated as we are not sure how to help without doing the project ourselves.....(which goes against everything we believe in as far as homework is concerned).......

Any hints or suggestions would be welcome......Thanks

 

[gepetto]

Can't you build it out of cardboard or wood and glue the spaghetti/beans to it?

 

[lcmtam86]

sorry but the directions say no paper or glue............she has to insert spaghetti pieces into the beand(connectors) and she has to make a few triangles........and on Yahoo there is a site on this project and all the kids are teens to college............

 

[kidzmom3]

my 3rd grader did this last year with spaghetti and marshmellows. We basically used triangles as they are the strongest. Is she having trouble connecting the pasta to the bean or is it the actual bridge configuration getting her down?

 

[gepetto]

Sounds tough to do without glue.

 

[lcmtam86]

She has an idea of what she wants and we have tried 3 different beans and we are using toothpicks to put holes in the beans and the spaghetti keeps snapping and we just went to the market to find the thickest spaghetti.

The bridge can't weigh more than 1 pound... and has to hold 300 grams.....

and i think i like the marshmallow idea better but i dont think we can use them

Thanks for your replies so quickly

 

[kidzmom3]

read this online:

Spaghetti as-is out of the box is fine for the compression members of a bridge, but is usually too brittle for tension. A pasta technology trick that someone came up with is to cook and stretch the tension pieces before use. Just boil throughly and slowly in a big pot, hang each strand with a clothes peg on the bottom end to keep it straight and give some stretch, and then let dry for a day or two. When done correctly you end up with something stronger than the original that can be tied in a knot without breaking. Under good conditions, one of these pre-stretched strands can support over 15 kg.

 

[sharbear]

Gotta love school projects like this. I would love to call the teacher and ask her if SHE has done this and how long did it take her to do it.

My DD made towers out of pasta and glue. It was very hard and time consuming. What we did was go to an italian maket and buy different kinds of pasta. Spaghetti was too thin to work for us but we found a pasta that was a long tube. It worked great and really held up well. I would suspect that you would have to soak the beans to get them to use as connectors. I remember now the pasta was called Zita.

Good luck I've been there.

 

[jjskribs]

Sorry I can't help with a spaghetti bridge but if you ever have to build the Eiffel Tower out of waffles I can help you. As a teacher myself I too wonder where on Earth they come up with some of these ideas!

 

[Tinkbell]

Yikes! I don't like ths project at all. If building it isn't hard enough, she has to worry about getting it to school in one piece. My Godchild had a project like this when he was in 8th grade. Most of the kids' "bridges" were demolished by the time they reached school. This kind of project should be done IN school as a team effort. At 11 years old, it's almost impossible to do it without the help or energy of your parents.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

When I read your thread title I thought you were inviting us to play some kind of game!!!
Awww I feel your pain. This sounds like a nightmare for a project.

The only thing I can think of is breaking the pasta at certain points so their are less stress points????
Sorry I don't have a clue.

I hope you figure it out.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Well I just asked dh and says, well that easy. Since you are not allowed to use glue it is obvious that you must get the spaghetti wet.
He thinks that you may not have to boil it but just get it wet. He suggested that you use those small hair rubber bands to create a foundation of a few strands of spaghetti, dip in water for ?, then once it firms up snip off the rubber band.

I really don't know the answer but dh is convinced the use of water is a must.

Good Luck

 

[d.kurz]

Oh this just really makes me feel sooooo bad. It's just not right. Poor kid, poor Mom. Don't you feel like just writing a note, or going to see the teacher?? I have a 16 yo w/a small motor skills AND a perceptual problem that could NEVER do this! I wanna stamp my feet and shout NOT RIGHT, NOT FAIR, and JUST PLAIN SUC**!!!

I wish I could help.....

 

[#1 Disney Fan]

Ok, this actually sounds kinda cool to me. But, I could see how an 11 year old I could find it really frustrating. Especially since they're not allowed to use real glue... that just seems like one too many constraints.

Some great suggestions here. The Mystery Machine's suggestion of wetting the spaghetti makes absolute complete sense as that would release the starch which could act as a natural glue to keep the strands together. You'd have to experiment but I might glue small "sections" of spaghetti together by wetting them and letting them dry, and then glue multiple smaller sections together to make thicker pieces. In other words, say glue 3 strands together, then glue those 3 to more groups of 3, or however big they are. You might get more control this way than "gluing" huge portions together as one big clump. You'd have to try it though.

Of course, as suggested, and as required, the triangle shape is key.

Here's a webpage with a whole ton of pics that you can click on that might give you some more design suggestions. http://www.jhu.edu/virtlab/fall01/pics/wie.html

Make sure you have all the instructions/constraints... for instance, how long the bridge has to be (what distance it has to span), and how big the weights are that are going to be applied (so you know how wide to make the bridge).

If the bridge has to be longer than the length of one strand of spaghetti, don't have the break all in the middle like this:

_______ _________
(break expanded for diagram, joined in middle)

Make it like this instead:

_____ ______ _____
__ ______ _____ __
(top and bottom "wetted" together to make one long strand)

This way even at the breaks it is still supported.


GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[lcmtam86]

WOW...........DD got a 90 on her bridge...........DH & DD worked very hard for a couple days and today her teacher gave her an A.......Glad this one is over........Thanks for all your help.....

 

[kidzmom3]

I'm glad it finally worked out okay, good job to your DD for keeping at it.

 

[#1 Disney Fan]

Congrats to your DD. Glad that it went well.

 

[Boots]

Glad you got it done! HUGS for all the work involved!