Week 3 Activities

Vertical Stability- Card Tower

52 playing cards, Paper clips, String

Structure weight: 110g

Structure height:

Hypothesis: Survive a small blow wind

Fail: Gust of strong wind

The design of the tower evolved around the concept of not cutting any of the cards due to wanting to keep the cards intact after the exercise so that they wouldn’t lose their purpose.

Method of Construction:

To attach the cards together paper clips were used. Three horizontal cards were joined in the shape of a triangle, then three vertical cards were joined above and then the process was repeated to create the tower. At the base of the tower for a larger area of support three additional horizontal triangles where joined to the corners of the existing base triangle. As the tower got taller, the thickness of the structure decreased. For additional support three strings were connected from the support to a point along the middle of the tower. When it came to the last four cards to be placed on top, a suggestion was made of cutting them in strips to make the tower higher, this was then done but by swapping the four cards from the original deck with another four unwanted cards from other decks. This final addition concluded in the tower being the highest among all the groups.

Adding string to add more support

Connection between cards with paper clips

Note: This was a group activity with Catherine Erzetic and Harris Paneras.