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Tower Of Pasta

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Old 01-31-2007, 11:21 AM
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I have been assigned a project but I have no clue on how to build it. It consist of making a tower out of spaghetti.

These are the materials:

40 pieces of spaghetti
15 pieces of elbow macaroni
25 miniature marshmallows
10 toothpicks
4 straws
5 adhesive mailing labels.

The tower has to have minimum of 8in tall (including a plastic container which is about 3-4in tall) and has to support weight in a plastic container (5 pounds of 16-penny nails to use as weights)

**NOTE: This is my first project of this kind. Any input will be appreciated. Oh and I'll be building it tomorrow Thursday, Thanks.
Old 01-31-2007, 11:39 AM
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Here ya go....

http://gs.alesund.kommune.no/aspoybs/kv13/tower.JPG

http://gs.alesund.kommune.no/aspoybs/kv13/tower1.JPG

http://gs.alesund.kommune.no/aspoybs/kv13/eifel.JPG


cool.gif
Old 01-31-2007, 11:48 AM
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ok, so it has to be 8" tall min. so without the plastic container it basically has to be 4-5" tall of pasta... does it just have to hold the 5 lbs up? or does it have to have a certain design, or structure?

can you break the pasta pieces in half to make 80 pieces?

how long is one of the pieces of spagetti?
Old 01-31-2007, 11:56 AM
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Can you use Glue? Or are those the ONLY materials you can use? Can you modify the materials? kinda like what Socks said about breaking them in half.

Can you melt the marshmellows? Cut the straws? etc?

Cause if you can melt the marshmellows, you can make a pretty good adhesive.
Breaking the spaghetti will double it's strength.
Applying a cross pattern to a build will increase it's strength a ton.
If you can boil the spaghetti and dry it out again, you can make shapes that will allow you to further strengthen it....
Old 01-31-2007, 12:53 PM
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Dang, those are huge towers laugh.gif...

I can only use those materials, and yes I can do whatever I want with them (except boiling) I will be doing this on the classroom, meaning that I only have about 20min or less because all the structure will be judged the same class hour.

Yes, it has to hold those 5lbs.

One thing that I forgot to tell you, I'll be doing this on a team, but we haven't come up with anything yet, so all of us are looking for some answers for the project.

Thanks.




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