Student Pasta Bridges Hold Hundreds of Pounds [Photo Gallery]
Fair Lawn High School held its annual Pasta Bridge Competition Friday, in which geometry students try to build the sturdiest pasta bridge.
Fair Lawn High School geometry students sacrificed their crunchy fettuccini creations for the sake of science and mathematics Friday as part of the school's 14th annual Pasta Bridge Competition. Each year, the school's geometry students are tasked with designing a bridge made of only Ronzoni fettuccini and Elmer's White Glue that weighs no more than 12 ounces. Qualifying bridges are then judged on maximum weight supported, efficiency (maximum weight supported/mass of bridge) and aesthetic value. Building bridges out of pasta can be tedious work, but the annual competition has developed into a student favorite. "Kids come in with lots of questions and frustrations, but it’s almost like a rite of passage that they complete it," geometry …
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K.S.
6:52 pm on Wednesday, May 23, 2012
My daughter competed this year. There were a total of three students in her group. Their supplies, which wound up to be 3 boxes of pasta and 2 bottles of glue, cost a total of $5.00. Other projects have certainly cost me more than that. My daughter's group spend many hours together designing, planning, and constructing their bridge. They were given rules and guidelines to follow. It was a … more ›