Engineering Competition #2 - Tower Building

It’s that time of year again.  My co-worker, Michael, has once again concocted a mid-winter competition to challenge our minds and our sanity.  Last year, it was a Bridge Building contest.  You can read about the results of this competition here

The contest this year is Tower Building.   The tower needs to fit the form factor described in the picture below.  Our materials include:

  • 4  - tooth picks
  • 1 - 36” long piece of string
  • 1 - 36” long piece of 3/16” poplar dowel
  • 2 - 36” long piece of 1/8” poplar dowel
  • 1 - 3” long piece of 1” poplar dowel
  • Infinite amount of regular Elmers multi-purpose (white) or wood glue.

The competition is next Thursday, February 16th.  I’ve been accused of taking a waterfall approach to this competition as about all I’ve done so far is made a couple scale drawings of my tower.  I know I will suffer greatly due to the lack of prototyping and iteration, but time constraints have limited me.  It should be an interesting (and possibly long!) weekend.

I’ll keep you posted…

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