StrawTower

Expectations: Self-standing finished tower that can stand for at least a minute by itself.

Ideas: We began by putting 2 straws together in order to support the base of the structure effectively. This was done to several units however, this idea later proved to be faulty. The amount of weight that would’ve been bearing down on the base of the tower would've collapsed. We then decided to put straws together into squares and combine them into a dimensional triangle that proved to be sturdier and consumed the use of fewer straws. This structure however unfinished has proved to be able to hold a sufficient amount of weight without collapsing. We later made a pentagon out of the previously constructed squares in order to make the tower larger, which later proved to be a bad idea since it wasn’t as sturdy. In order to reinforce the stability of the tower we constructed braces running from the top of the pentagon to the upper area of the figure in order to support the spire. So far this idea although appealing, needs improvements in order to insure that the spire will be able to stand for an adequate amount of time on its own. Throughtout the duration of this project I learned that just because you or another person has an idea, doesnt mean that's the road you'll go down. Each memeber of our group had individual ideas on how to go about constructing the tower, just about each one of them was incorporated into the finished product. However, a few here and there were rejected. Originally, we planned to use the 5 sided straw triangles as the base of our structure. After crafting a few of these pieces and putting them together we then realized too many straws would be needed to complete the tower. Also, with the amount of construction that needed to be accomplished by using this particular idea in our given time frame was inefficeint to our limit. It was then when we constructed squares that were bigger in size and in support to act as the base of our structure. This idea proved to be a valuable alternative. If this project was to come again, I would try finding a way of using less straws to create the tower, but keep the basics of the base of the figure and braces to support the tower.