Bridge building contests are not entirely new to civil engineering students. Usually, they use barbeque sticks and straws with tape or gum as the adhesive, but not the students from the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University in Lithuania – they are using a kilogram of pasta and glue to make scale-model bridges.
One would think that such a material is not ideal for bridge building, thinking that they are only made for spaghetti. Surprisingly, pasta is a strong material when uncooked, to the point that civil engineering students collectively called as Spikis have made a pasta bridge that can support 307.6 kilograms.
Yup, 307.6 kilograms. That can be compared to the weight of a large vending machine.
Spikis have beat their own record on the fifth time the competition was held among the civil engineering students in the university. Previously, the group was able to make a pasta bridge that can carry 251 kilograms. Still an unbelievable weight.
Before they took to the championship round of competition, members of Spikis have conducted tests in the laboratory to choose the best pasta for their final bridge. Once they have finally chosen the pasta, they have built the amazing bridge which for a week.
Other groups have prepared a lot for the pasta bridge competition. One group has bought all kinds of pasta from the supermarket and put them on a bucket filled with water to test the flexibility of the pasta.
Another had produced 8 technical drawings before arriving to their final design, and take note: they had 50-cm long spaghetti delivered from Italy.
It is fair to say that the participating teams, which includes university and high school students and professional engineers, have put a lot of effort and preparation for this competition, just like how athletes prepare for the Olympics.
The pasta bridge competition has come a long way since it debuted. In the first championship in 2011, the strongest bridge only carried 23 kilograms of weight with only four teams competing. In the fifth installment, there were already 10 teams – 5 from the university, 1 Erasmus, 1 alumni team, and 3 high school pupils’ teams.
Sources: RECCS | Bored Panda
