Balsa Building Challenge

[Aia]

Hello everyone! Recently, I was assigned a creative project in my English class for the book All the King's Men. Since I am hopeless at drawing, I thought I might build a metaphorical balsa structure.

One of the themes in the book is intention, in the terms that "intention doesn't matter, but action does". Another theme relates to how a pebble dropped in a pond creates countless concentric circles, in the same way that an action's effects reverberate through life.

I thought it would be neat if I could build a balsa structure that looks perfects sturdy, but as soon as some amount of weight is applied to it (this wouldn't need to be a huge amount- the press of a finger would work), the structure would bend out of shape. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to accomplish this.

Personally, I thought a tower-like structure with small main supports (no cross beams) would show my idea, but I think there might be better ways to do this.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[rjm]

How about a tensegrity structure? Look here:http://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyh ... grity.html

Tensegrity structures hold their shape and look rigid, but they are highly flexible, and the effect of stress is distributed throughout the structure as deformations, even far from the original site of application of the external force. Not sure if it addresses your theme, but these are interesting structures anyway.

Bob Monetza
Grand Haven, MI

[dudeincolorado]

is your mind set on balsa? beacuse i was thinking of dominoes, or over watered jello
but if you are set on balsa
the last post seems to sufice

ooo this looks fun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyzsDmkYnJY would that work for your purposes? all you need is a box of popsicle sticks... have fun with this!

[smartkid222]

have you tried that in the video, it looks cool?

[Aia]

I looked at the tensegrity structures, and it seemed like something I could use. It actually fits the theme I am trying to communicate quite well.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out. I'm going to attempt to build a tensegrity tower on Friday after school.

Thanks!

[Aia]

I built my tensegrity tower today: it's quite excellent!

I put a picture online, but it really doesn't do the structure justice- although it is hard to tell from the photo, none of the dowels actually touch.
http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x298 ... G_1786.jpg
I have yet to cut the loose ends and straighten out the structure entirely, but this is how it turned out.

Aren't these cool structures? Personally, I thought this was the best tensegrity:
http://ropesandpoles.blogspot.com/2006/ ... art-1.html

That one would be so fun to put that up in a front yard as a decoration, especially with Halloween just around the corner.

[rjm]

Very nice!

These are fascinating structures, and they are fundamentally different from anything else we've been building.

Bob Monetza
Grand Haven, MI.