2013-1_Reflection_Student Journal

Week 1 In the lecture we used a page of paper to build up a base for holing a 5kg brick. As we know, the base which is shape of triangle will be strong than other shape of base.

Hence I built up a base of shape triangle.

From the top: from the side:

After putting the brick:

In the tutorial we need to use a great amount of block to build a building as high as we can. And we also need to leave a space for the horse to go in. That’s mean we need to make sure that the building should be firm and tall.

The base of our building:

we try to make a round base to make sure the surface touched the ground is big enough for holding the rest of the block.

use two standing block to increase the height of the building.

We built the block as a stair, it can be strong enough to hold the pressure. Because each block relate to each one hence it will be difficult to break it.

The short is that if one block is broken other will be affected as well.

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Here is the outward of our building. The outstanding block will be the weakness.

Its very easy to attack our building if one of outstanding block has been removed.

inside look

From the top.

Due to the time we couldn’t built any higher.

The open space is the door for the horse to go inside.

This was the tallest building in our tutorial. It used the shape of honeycomb.

It held the structure more stronger. Each box which placed on top of the building was around 10kg. we put six boxes on it but the building still can hold it.

Week 2 In this lecture we need to use two straws and a box to build a base so that it can support heavy item.

A student sticks the straw from the four sides so that it could balance the box.

Unfortunately its too weak for the straw to hold the heavy item.

This student uses four straws to make a shape of W. And it even has a support point in the middle of each straw.

Because the straw is too weak so it still can’t hold the item.

The base I build:

I got the same outcome as the above one.

Because the force that the straw can afforded is very light.

In the tutorial we cut a piece of wood into 20 slices. We need to use these 20 slices to build up a tower as high as we can.

We choose to build a triangle shape base: We used tape to stick each slice together. For the base is the most important part of a building. If the base is not firm enough it will affect the rest of the structure. And all the slices should be in one horizon.

We stick the pillar part between the angles so it has a support angle.

First floor of our tower

If there is no support point in the middle the tower will not afford great forces which act on it. Hence we used another three slices to support each base then we even used three short slices to support from the middle of the pillar.

After finishing the first floor we started building the second floor.

At the end, our tower has been built up to floor three. The last part which only has a slice sticks on it just to increase its height.

Due to our rough handwork our tower has lean on one side. So we need to give it a support opposite it. That’s why at last we stick another slice to the base.

When Ms Mitcheltree started to act forces on the tower we can see the one without middle support is being twist but the base still held together. The weak point of the tower is every middle point of the slice.

The bend part is the middle of the slice.

Xiaowen Lu

20/03/2014