Wooden Arch Bridge

History

Wooden Arch Bridge, also called Mathematical Bridge. It was designed by William Ethelich II and was built by James Essex in 1749. The Mathematical Bridge is located in Cambridge, England, spanning Cambridge on the campus of the University of Cambridge, connecting the Queen’s College to the campus on both sides of the River. The Mathematical bridge reconstruction in1866 and 1905, but the original design has not changed.

In the short term, the wooden arch bridge can use to let people across the river. In long term, it can be used to build a stone arch bridge.

The Wooden Arch Bridge in China                 The Mathematical Bridge in England

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Physics Involved

Kinetic energy and Potential energy when the car through the bridge.

Ek=1/2mv^2   Ep=mgh

The Newton’s Third Law, forces result from interactions.  So the Fn from ground equal to opposite Fg of the bridge.

And forces we haven’t touched yet:

 

 

 

 

 

Design and Building

Day 1

We discussed and decided to make an arch bridge. Then we searched some information on our machine.

Day 2

We drew a draft of our machine and build a model only with some chopsticks, but we failed.

Day 3

We build a little arch bridge first: using chopsticks, glue and glue gun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4

Based on the little arch bridge, we add some chopsticks on both sides to make it longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 5

To make the bridge looks better and real, we paint color on the bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hardest part of this chopstick arch bridge is if we don’t glue it, it is hard to make because we need to make the chopstick hold each other and do not fall. And also it is hard to fix out how to let the chopstick hold each other, where to put each one.

5 web that I look up

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Bridge

https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/life-at-queens/about…/mathematical-bridge

https://dailysliceofpi.wordpress.com/2013/07/…/newtons-mathematical-bridge

https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/數學橋