Week 5: Bridget Breslin

In the previous week, all of the information learned about the structure and development of bridges was applied. The team developed a bridge out of Knex. Initially, the concept seemed as if it would be extremely easy and a bridge would be completed in no time, however that was not true. When finally given the Knex, my ideas, as well as my teammates’ ideas, were somewhat limited due to the ability of the Knex pieces and the pieces that were available to us. After getting to accustomed what could and could not be done, a bridge was able to be built.

            The purpose of using Knex to construct a bridge is to get a more realistic understanding of the bridge building process. When using the West Point Bridge Designer program it was extremely helpful. The program helped to facilitate the thinking strategy of how to construct and design a bridge. However, the program had some flaws and in ways was not completely realistic, especially when it came to how an actual bridge would work in real life. The simulator did not account for outside factors and allowed too much bending of the bridge.

Transitioning to building a bridge out of Knex will help to get a better feel for what a realistic bridge could withstand. Like the West Point Bridge Designer, Knex help to get an understanding of the bridge design process, only with hands on experience. A Knex bridge that is built will not allow for as much bending and flexibility as the West Point Bridge Designer simulator.  Testing designs out of Knex and observing their successes and flaws will be more helpful to understand the successes and flaws in real bridges. Although doing this will be more time consuming because designing a bridge, testing it and claculating the price can not be instantly done by the program, it will take more effort.

In the upcoming week, I think that the biggest challenge is going to be perfecting the bridge. Although an initial design has been constructed, that does not mean it will be our final design. The team needs to review the price and sustainability of our current design and determine how to moderate it to make an even better bridge that is cheaper.