Can I use your equipment for a bridge-building contest?

Yes. The best way is to use our Force Plate (FP-BTA). It is able to measure forces up to 3500 N (787 lbs).

If you want to test the bridges in a normal orientation with the force applied downward, build a wooden rig shaped like a squared up letter "U". The bridge should sit across the top to sections of the wooden rig. The rig is placed on our Force Plate so that the force is read as you press down. Note that you can do all of the following with our software:

- zero the Force Plate to so that the weight of the rig and the bridge are subtracted.

- plot graphs of force vs time as the force is applied.

- determine the maximum breaking force.

- save and print out results for contestants to show their friends and family.

- with Logger Pro 3, if you record a movie of the bridge testing, you could replay the movie with the graph of force vs time synched with it.

- with Logger Pro 3, you can also set up a column to display the maximum force and turn on a large digital meter for all the students to see. (helps build suspense)

We did an article in our Spring 2005 newsletter about bridge building, which is featured at:
http://www2.vernier.com/newsletters/spring05.pdf