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Towers are weighed before they are tested. |
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Towers must support a loading block on top that holds a chain in the center. |
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Sand is loaded into a bucket hanging from the chain. Some tournaments have a device that dispenses the sand with the pull of a lever (see below). |
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A PVC "Breaker". The hopper on top feeds sand down the tube into the bucket. A lever on the back of the device controls the rate of flow. |
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An assortment of designs. |
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100% fettuccini |
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Similar to the design above, but substituted thinner linguine instead of fettuccini for some of the cross braces. This tower will weigh less than the one above, and probably holds close to the same amount of sand. |
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This tower far exceeds the height requirement and well exceeds the minimum span at the base. Rank is determined by the lightest tower that holds the most weight, up to 15 kg. This tower might have held the whole 15 kg, but it is definitely not the lightest. |
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The entire outer cage structure on this tower is unnecessary. The weight is held at the center, where the loading block is applied. The extra pasta is simply adding more weight to the tower itself. |
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This tower is being protected in a cardboard box until it is time for testing. This is very wise. |
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Connecting joints is one of the hardest things to do with pasta. |
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Note the excess glue strands that are adding (ever so slightly) additional weight to the tower. Hit them with a hairdryer to make them wisp away. |
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A close up of the lamination joints |
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These joints are glued very neatly and precisely |
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These joints have an excessive amount of glue, which adds weight to the tower |
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Threading the loading block through the tower |
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Participants will be asked to connect the loading block and chain and bucket themselves. Be careful not to let the tower fall over while doing this. |
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This tower did not meet regulations for spanning a 10cm opening. It is being tested on a non-regulation board and will place below all the towers that did meet regulations. |
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Using a smaller model to test a truss design |
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It helps to have an extra set of hands |
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Testing which shapes are strongest |
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Building one side, build the opposite side then connect. |
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Cover your design in packing tape so you can lay the pasta directly over it to glue together |
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