Team "Overdressed and Outclassed" won the 2011 Physics Bridge Challenge, an annual Popsicle stick bridge-building competition hosted by the physics department and the Society of Physics Students.
Team “Overdressed and Outclassed” won the 2011 Physics Bridge Challenge, an annual Popsicle stick bridge-building competition hosted by the Physics Department and the Society of Physics Students.
Team members David Belyea, Carter Kozak and Matt Smith built a bridge that could support 30.4 kilograms, or almost 67 pounds.
Teams were asked to construct a bridge of at least 100 centimeters in length from 100 popsicle sticks for the event, which was held Tuesday, Nov. 15 in the McMichael Science Center. SPS members added weights and sand until the bridge collapsed. This year’s winning bridge fell just short of passing the all-time record of 31.4 kilograms set last year.
The second place bridge, “Murphy’s Law,” constructed by Andrew Loughran, Ian Milne and Sarah Zierhoffer held 12.8 kilograms. Lee Cantrell, Stewart Finney, Steven Lathrop and Dean Smalligan were team “DSLS,” and had the third place bridge which held 11.4 kilograms.
Images of the event, including high-speed camera movies of some bridges failing, are available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho100La5HMY