Paper tower! Not easy!

[grayfalcon89]

Hi,

 

This is my FIRST year taking physics in high school (I'm senior) and our first lab which we get to work in class is building paper tower. I'm given one paper (about 28 cm x 21.5 cm; regular A4 paper) and limited amount of tape (I do not know exact but it's not "that" much) and scissors. I'm supposed to build a tower that's 1m high and standing.

 

I've tried many methods and still am trying. But I'm stuck mainly of two reasons:

 

1. I can't build a solid base

 

2. I can't roll papers into same sized tubes (Yeah, it's not easy rolling papers... :-X).

 

Help is greatly appreciated!

[foodchain]

Hi,

 

This is my FIRST year taking physics in high school (I'm senior) and our first lab which we get to work in class is building paper tower. I'm given one paper (about 28 cm x 21.5 cm; regular A4 paper) and limited amount of tape (I do not know exact but it's not "that" much) and scissors. I'm supposed to build a tower that's 1m high and standing.

 

I've tried many methods and still am trying. But I'm stuck mainly of two reasons:

 

1. I can't build a solid base

 

2. I can't roll papers into same sized tubes (Yeah, it's not easy rolling papers... :-X).

 

Help is greatly appreciated!

 

 

Try to find a stable unit or structure. Use it as a base, and basically replicate above it until the weight becomes to much. I am sure there are calculations out there you can use, I don’t know any off hand though. Maybe a trapezoid type structure and internally fill it with triangles. I would think you could lessen the triangle structures the smaller the units get, or you could even once stability is obtained try to get more artistic with it.

 

I don’t suppose just rolling a piece of paper up into a meter high roll would work lol! Like rolling a poster up.

[swansont]

If tubes are too difficult then you might try strips with a ~90º bend in them. Or, if a "V" isn't good enough, try a "W"

[insane_alien]

fan shapes are good tubes are better. but if you only have 1 sheet then the fan shape will be the way to go.if you cut up the paper into uneven strips, make sure the thicker ones go at the bottom and put some more folds in them. when you use tape to join the strips, be VERY careful not to squash the W's or WW if you need that many. if you do then the strength of the tower completely disappears.

 

if you have enough tape, try making guy wires to steady it as the tower could easily get blown over. don't use a full strip though, tearing the tape lengthwise into 4 strips (or even more if you can do it will be sufficient.

[Sisyphus]

I dunno, one meter is probably too high for stacking fans. The first thing I would try would be to cut it into strips, roll those strips into tubes, overlapping when rolling so you get three long tubes, plus some left over. Put the tubes into a triangular pyramid shape, including more tubes for the base, with additional tubes supports up and down the height as need be. I'm thinking there might not be enough paper for that, either, though.

[YT2095]

pity you couldn`t cut the paper into a Spiral and then tape one end to the floor and the other to the ceiling

[gcol]

Why assume you need tubes all the same diameter?

 

Think fishing rod where each section fits inside the next. Practical problem would be to find 3 or 4 mandrels of decreasing diameter.

 

Practice rolling the tubes around for example a pencil and a biro and perhaps a drinking straw or chopstick. This will give three fitting tubes and use only perhaps an 11cm strip of your paper...... plenty left for a base and guy strips.

[iNow]

This is probably WAY against the rules, but it's worth checking out in case it's not...

 

Get some spray starch and a hot iron. Take your cut pieces of paper, spray them with starch, then iron the creases. They will be more structurally rigid and the bends will be stronger...

 

 

Like I said though, it's probably against the rules.

[pioneer]

If you ever tried to roll paper, the strongest tube is going to be tightly rolled, almost to a solid; skinny like a lolli-pop stick. Since the paper is 28cm, you will need four of these taped together to get 1M. One long lollipop stick may not stand, so you need to make three 1M lollipop sticks, from your paper and use the strong shape of a pyamid. Make it very close at the base, so you better support the weight vertically and get the height. You will need some tape for the base so it won't spread. This gives you only 21cm width to roll up 4x3 skinny tubes, for all three legs, You will also need to save some tape to splice your 3x(4x28cm) sections. The paper is light so the strength of your beams should be strong enough.

 

If rolling the paper is too time consuming, a faster way is to keep folding the width of a strip in half with sharp creases; maybe placing a weight on the paper after each fold so the paper can relax.

[Innit]

Triangles are the trick, I believe. They tend to keep everything more stable. That's why they're used in structures like bridges. You should try and form triangles, or as the others have stated "V's" or "W's" to keep the structure stable...

 

I can't really say much because I'm only 14, but from my knowledge, that is how it works...

[insane_alien]

Innit, age is irrelevant. its what you know and how you use it that counts.

[gcol]

I just made one from a sheet of A4 copy paper, took about one hour.

 

using a bamboo barbecue/kebab stick as a mandrel, I rolled 6 paper tubes. Three for the tower, three for a tripod base. That is all, nothing else except a bit of sticky-tape. No fans, no triangles. Total height about 1metre 15cm.

 

(For advice on rolling tubes, ask a spliff expert.....plenty of those in college these days, so they tell me!)

[insane_alien]

heh, i just made one using the fan method. 1m 12 cm and used 3 guy wires made out of 50 cm of masking tape. a further 5 cm was used in joining the fans. i wasn't sure how limited the tape was and i have a few rolls sitting around.

[grayfalcon89]

Thanks for the help... Except... I still can't build tower and it's driving me nuts.

 

I found out that today that the amount of tape is 30 cm and I have 43 minutes to construct the tower (well me and my partner).

 

I've tried many methods given by here. Here are ones that I did:

 

1. Simple equally lengthed "tubes" tower... Didn't stand very far

2. Using some sort of cylinderlike (not very tall) base... Better than first one but still weak

3. Using three tubes to make a "tripod-like" figure as base (isn't that what you guys mean by triangle????)... Somewhat better but still weak

 

 

I don't honestly understand what V or W mean... Can you guys like... make a picture or describe more? This is my FIRST lab and I don't want to get zero because I couldn't make a stupid tower.. arrr

 

Oh by the way, I'm doin' this Friday so yeah.. not much time..

[iNow]

I don't honestly understand what V or W mean... Can you guys like... make a picture or describe more?

Think of them not as letters, but as shapes. It has been mentioned that the triangle is a very strong shape, so you can come close to making a triangle by making a "V." If you want to make the "V" stronger, you would double it, and instead make a "W."

 

 

Sounds like you have a cool teacher if you're doing a project like this. I'm sure they'll talk about the various approaches once the project is done, and I'd love to hear what others in your class tried.

 

 

Half the fun is being creative. You don't have to build a solution which is perfect, but you do need to try creating a solution.

[dichotomy]

 

I found out that today that the amount of tape is 30 cm

 

Well, you could use a 50cm W x 30cm L masking or gaffer tape then.

[iNow]

Cut the tape in half... down the center... to get twice as much.

[grayfalcon89]

haha good idea...

 

Thanks a lot guys. This has probably been most helpful science thread EVER! I and my partner (she did a lot of work) made tower that was 105cm.

 

Record in our class was around 150cm.

[iNow]

I and my partner (she did a lot of work) made tower that was 105cm.

Way to go! That's awesome.