Golf Ball Tower Project
The Project:
The goal of this project was to design a structure of the maximum height capable of supporting a golf ball for a minimum of 30 seconds without falling over. The winning design would be the one with the greatest height compared to the width of it's base, using the formula: Height^2 /Base. The criteria for the project was that it needed to be self standing and constructed only with a manila file folder, masking tape and two rubber bands. The height was measured from the surface where the golf ball was sitting.
The Design and Result:
The design selected for this project consisted of three cylinders, each one smaller than the next, and attached within the one below it. The construction of the tower made it unbalanced however, and it was a struggle to get it to stand at all, even without the weight of the golf ball. For this reason, a 35 out of a possible 50 points was awarded (meaning that, at the very minimum, a design was submitted).
Experience, Lessons learned:
The experience taken away from this project was that the planning process is very important. It was not anticipated that the tower would not stand up on its own very easily, or that it would slowly fall under its own weight, let alone the excess weight of the golf ball. Another lesson was learned about how functionality comes before competition. Because of the grading method the motivation shifts from a tower that can hold a golf ball to a tower that has the smallest base and the maximum height. If the tower had been built with meeting the base requirement of functionality in mind instead of the competition, it would not have been considered such a personal failure.
The goal of this project was to design a structure of the maximum height capable of supporting a golf ball for a minimum of 30 seconds without falling over. The winning design would be the one with the greatest height compared to the width of it's base, using the formula: Height^2 /Base. The criteria for the project was that it needed to be self standing and constructed only with a manila file folder, masking tape and two rubber bands. The height was measured from the surface where the golf ball was sitting.
The Design and Result:
The design selected for this project consisted of three cylinders, each one smaller than the next, and attached within the one below it. The construction of the tower made it unbalanced however, and it was a struggle to get it to stand at all, even without the weight of the golf ball. For this reason, a 35 out of a possible 50 points was awarded (meaning that, at the very minimum, a design was submitted).
Experience, Lessons learned:
The experience taken away from this project was that the planning process is very important. It was not anticipated that the tower would not stand up on its own very easily, or that it would slowly fall under its own weight, let alone the excess weight of the golf ball. Another lesson was learned about how functionality comes before competition. Because of the grading method the motivation shifts from a tower that can hold a golf ball to a tower that has the smallest base and the maximum height. If the tower had been built with meeting the base requirement of functionality in mind instead of the competition, it would not have been considered such a personal failure.