10,000 Toothpick Model of a Bridge! What Do You Think?

The Maker
@the-maker-2wb02z Oct 26, 2024

I hope that you enjoy my new video! Here is the description:
This is "10,000 Toothpick Model of a Bridge"

Specs

Weight: 1306.15 g
Height: 0.149 m
Length: 1.38 m
Span: 1.16 m
Width Of Foot: 0.195 m
Width Of Roadbed: 0.0615 m


I built it in the 8th grade. A project in math class was to build a 1,000 toothpick bridge over a one foot span. My group's bridge held 54 pounds before breaking. The current bridge was planned to span to span 5ft. It fell a little short, but the actual span can be found above in the specs. I had my little sister, who was 70 pounds at the time, stand on the bridge, and it held her weight. She was 70 pounds. I do not want to test it any further! I do not care if it could hold a car and then break, I do not want a broken bridge. It took me about 2 months to complete it (December 2014 - January 2015). The original arc shape was the hardest to get right. I thought about making a huge compass, but that was impractical. I decided to bend a ruler and trace to the formed arc. This turned out to be a very elegant solution. I made toothpick squares and laid them out on the arc on graph paper. From there I built it layer by layer. It slowly formed a solid triangle. I used wood glue instead of hot glue in this project. This was a very good choice.

Replies

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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    @thebigk Jun 2, 2017

    The video is missing.

  • The Maker

    @the-maker-2wb02z Jun 3, 2017

    Kaustubh KatdareThe video is missing.

    Thank you, I think I have got it now.