{"id":10598,"date":"2015-07-23T10:32:21","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T00:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legoeng.local\/?p=10598"},"modified":"2015-12-18T23:24:52","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T12:24:52","slug":"iteration-and-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/legoeng.local\/iteration-and-efficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"Iteration and efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Arch-Bridge\"Efficiency is important in engineering, not only in materials but also time, money and energy. It is important for a young engineer to learn the value of an efficient product. Anyone can build a bridge with as many pieces they desire, but can you do it with fewer and fewer?<\/p>\n

Challenge:<\/strong> Build a bridge that can hold a specified amount of weight. If it successfully holds the weight, rebuild the bridge using 20% fewer pieces. Every time you are successful, continue to remove pieces. Whoever can hold the weight using the fewest pieces is the winner of the challenge.<\/p>\n

Students will be surprised at how many times they can iterate on their bridge and how much more efficient they can be in the use of the bricks.<\/p>\n

We tested out this challenge ourselves and built a 1 ft bridge to hold a large water bottle. Our first bridge was comprised of 51 pieces, which we cut down to 40 and then further cut down to 32 pieces.<\/p>\n