Hey bro. Log out when you're done, yeah? I could've done so much worse than this if I was a douche like other people. I have taught you a valuable lesson. :)

Spaghetti Towers

     When given the assignment to build an 80cm tower made from nothing but spaghetti and tape, my immediate thought was, no problem. However with our budget being a measly $500 with each piece of tape being $10, and the same for each stick of pasta, a potential challenge arose.

This was our first design plan...it's not easy to see, but the general idea is that  it is a square structure with cross supports placed at every length of spaghetti that we build up, and we place a pyramid at the top to save money. In total, this plan cost $490, leaving us $10 to spare.

     We then began work on building the basic unit of construction, which was going to be an individual pillar that would be built upon.

We began setting up the cross that would be used to support the structure as we  built it skyward. The instability of the layered position of the cross however gave me reason to be suspect of the usefulness of the design as a whole.

     Soon after we made our first cross, we realized that our structure was going to be completely vertical, with virtually no support at the base. Knowing this, we decided to trash the idea without too much hesitation in order to save time. And again in the interest of time, we dove right back in.

Our next idea was to make a triangular prism, held steady with supports along the side. We decided on making it triangular mainly for the purpose of saving  money, for our bases now had to use more spaghetti in order to stay standing.

     Once we had this, we began stabilizing it, a process that proved as time consuming and as foolhardy as our last idea, but unlike with that idea we held to it longer.

here you see our version of the completed unit of construction. And let me assure you, if I was not there holding it up, it would have collapsed then and there.

     Now, this design was looking just as bleak, if not more so, than its predecessor...however, we held fast in our faith. We decided to give it one more go by building a second unit on top of it.

Here you see our still very foolhardy attempt at this atrocity of a design, but we attempted a different style of structural supports, and while they were better than what we had previously done, they were still not enough to bring our plans to fruition.

     At this point, we abandoned yet another hope for success. People around us had already reached there goal of 80cm, so we were becoming pressed for time. Our next idea was to made instead of a triangular prism, but a triangular pyramid, hoping that it would provide extra support to the base. Let me tell you this right now, that idea failed immediately, but the manner in which it failed gave us a brand new heading to work off of.

This is what became of our initial unit for our pyramid. the manner in which it collapsed allowed for each beam to support the others, and with an additional piece of tape in the middle, it became more structurally sound than any model we had discovered prior.

     Now, when we came up with this idea it was near the end of the period, so we were pressed for time. But we still wanted to see how far we could run with this idea. Our idea was still a pyramid like structure, with each tier slowly tapering off so that the top ended in a point, but we came into a little problem that could have been avoided with even a little basic knowledge of triangles.

As you can see, we tried making a similar unit, except with the base consisting  of full length spaghetti. As you can clearly see, it did not end well. 

     We had to break for the weekend, so I had some to dwell on several possibilities. Then, all of a sudden, it hit me. The individual unit I had accidentally made was stronger than anything we had made beforehand. Possibly strong enough to create a straight up and down pillar that could support its own weight. So when we got back, I set to work.

I began reconstructing the base unit, and was able to successfully stack two on top of each other, giving me a height of about 43cm. So far everything was going exactly as planned.

     Now, even as everything was starting to look up, we ran into still more problems. As we added the third unit to the structure, we began to notice that it was falling. I attempted to adjust it so that it would hold itself up, but to no avail. Then, yet another idea struck me out of the blue. If we could reinforce each unit, while connecting it to the next at the same time, we could provide a simple backbone to it, possibly giving it just enough structural stability to reach the coveted 80cm mark.

In the foreground of this picture you can see my structure as it was left most recently, looking very much the same, except for one key detail. It is difficult to see from this angle, but there is a single piece of pasta running between the two individual units, providing the very backbone I had theorized. You also see the third unit, ready to be transplanted to the  fledgling tower.

     Now, while we were unable to test out my theory to see if with this new backbone my structure can withstand at least the weight of three units at a time, we did notice that even the two unit structure was considerably stronger and more stable, even having weakened joints due to loss of adhesiveness of the tape. So, it remains to be seen whether or not this structure will truly work as we want it to, but so far, the data is on the side of success.