Week 9: Term Review

This past week the group tested the finalized 3' bridge in class. It held a total of 35.2lbs and costed $418,000.  The cost/load ratio turned out to be 11875 $/lb.  I believe this is probably an average ratio.  The group will be working on the A4 report to turn in for next class and it is coming along well.

I believe the group met the goals for this course and in the process learned a lot about bridge design and truss analysis.  Not only did the group learn about these things but they also learned about the importance of efficiency in engineering especially when dealing with the cost of a project.  I think the most beneficial part of this course was the experiment and calculations the group performed.  It really helped us get a hands on experience in designing and revising a plan for problem.  The least beneficial to me was the lack of things to do in the lab at times.  This was also a problem for the group because we would rather get out of the classroom so it was not necessarily due to the lack of work.  For future classes it would be important to make sure all designs make the specifications exactly as they are laid out.  It would also make things a lot more interesting to have the best groups make larger models of their bridges, like a 5' bridge, to see how the strength decreases for each bridge and how the cost/load ratios are affected.