I need help with a project

[Zephyranthes]

This has nothing to do with cars. I'm having a project in Geometry, and we have to make a toothpick structure. The guidelines are that we can only use 100 toothpicks, elmers glue, minimum of 5 by 5 inch base, and 7-10 inches high. The extremely hard part is that it has to be able to hold at least one of our geometry textbooks which is like 700 pages. Anybody have any ideas on the structure of this thing?

[ralliart]

i say glue 2 tooth picks together and just use 50 picks,
i think it'll be stronger...Oh and always make triangles.

[bluemax_1]

Structure or a bridge? This is a reasonably common project and the ones I'm familiar with are usually to build a bridge, where the structure will be placed between two desks. If you get the geometry right, it can support more than the weight of a textbook. And ralliart is right. The design should consist of triangles.

If it is just a structure that you have to place the book on top of, a simple but strong structure starts with a triangular base and is built like a 3-sided pyramid, except you don't build it to a point. The sides and levels/floors consist of many small triangles 1-by-1-by-1 toothpicks long.

[Zephyranthes]

Hey, thanks. I knew triangles were strong, but I wasn't sure on how the shape of the whole structure should be. It's not a bridge, more like a building.

[ralliart]

hey man...you know what you should do?

build like three small pyramids and then form them together to form a rectangle. Because in math, in a rectangle theres 3 pyramids. base X height divided by three

[nrmcj]

omg.. what kinda freaky math class are you in ralliart?! first that weirdass logic question... and now this.... rectangle thing..... lol

[MTL]

i would sort of cheat and use clear krazy glue because itll hold better than Elmers...but i would spray paint the structure when you are done because you might be able to see the glue > <