This week in DT we have done lots of testing the stability and strength of different shapes. First of all we made three shapes out of playdough. We tested which was the most stable. We found out that the pyramid was the most stable because it had a wide, flat base.
Then we tested the strength of different shapes made out of paper. We made a cylinder, cuboid and triangular prism and placed books on top. We were quite surprised to find that the cylinder held the most books before collapsing.
Later on in the week, we investigated how we could strength our designs. We each made a cylinder on our tables and put them together to make a super structure – some peoples held 24 books with just 6 cylinders!
Finally, we put all our cylinders together to made a mega structure! We were able to put 107 books on it and it still didn’t collapse. We had run out of books! So we decided to see if it could hold the weight of a child which it did! It couldn’t hold the weight of Mr McGriffiths though!
Help at home by making and designing different structures. How could you test their strength!