As our final assignment for the Structures and Materials course (CIV102) at the University of Toronto, we designed and built a bridge made out of less than 750g cardboard which was able to hold a load of 1106N. The purpose of this project was to apply the knowledge that we had gained throughout the course with regards to structures, and bridges in particular. The assignment sheet which outlines the requirements of the project has been attached below.
 

As it is mentioned in the assignment sheet, the 3 design possibilities included:
             1. Continuous beam, no supporting column
             2. Continuous beam, with a supporting column
             3. 2-piece beam, with a supporting column
Our team internally assigned each member with one design possibility and the task was to assess each design based on its strengths and weaknesses.

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After doing so, we reached the conclusion that a continuous beam with no supporting column would be the better design for this project. This was because of 2 reasons:
             1. We only had a certain amount of cardboard; hence, using a column would significantly decrease our available material

                 for the beam itself and the tradeoff was in our disadvantage.

             2. Using a column would require a much higher amount of glue and we would not have enough glue to strengthen the

                 beam.
 

In the next step, we created an excel sheet, where we entered all our equations and worked with numbers to figure out the best combination of components for maximum load. After finalizing our values and finishing our report, we started building the bridge. Eventually, 3 days before the deadline for testing, we were able to finish building the bridge.
 

The Assignment sheet and pictures of the bridge have been attached below.