Whether you're entering a competition or simply want a fun home activity, making pasta bridges is educational. The main goal of building a pasta bridge is to create a lightweight bridge that can support a large load. Pasta bridge contests measure how much weight the bridge can hold and specify the materials you can use to do so.
- Skill level:
- Moderately Easy
Instructions
Things you need
- Hot glue gun
- Spaghetti
- Coins
- Envelope
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1
Decide on a design. The two pyramids design is commonly more stable than other designs.
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2
Cut the lower part of the envelope to make a coin basket. The coin basket will hold coins to determine how much weight your bridge can hold.
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3
Cut the spaghetti into equal lengths. Hold the spaghetti together so it's even on one end. Use a sharp knife to cut the spaghetti so that it is even on the other end.
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4
Glue the ends of three pieces of spaghetti together with the hot glue gun to form a triangle. Do this again to form another triangle. These will be the base for the pyramid.
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5
Glue three strands of spaghetti to one of the base triangles. Take a strand of spaghetti and glue it to one point of the triangle. Take another strand and glue it to another point and glue the final strand to the last point. Once they are all glued, connect them at the top to form a pyramid and glue them together.
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6
Repeat step 6 to form the other pyramid.
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7
Glue a strand of spaghetti to both top points of the pyramid to make a bridge.
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8
Hang the coin basket from the center of the bridge and carefully add coins to see how much weight it can support.
Tips and warnings
- You can use marshmallows as glue points if you don't have a hot glue gun.
- The thicker the spaghetti, the stronger the bridge will be.
- Use small amounts of glue so that the spaghetti pieces don't cook.
- Strand spaghetti together for a stronger bridge.
