Analysis Desires- Durkin

It would be incredibly helpful to be able to determine the amount of stress on each piece of the bridge, specifically the joints as the joints seem to be were the bridges are slipping and breaking most often. In other words knowing the compression force versus strength ratio as well as the tension force versus strength ratio for each member and joint would be incredibly helpful. These would be very help because they would help our group determine which pieces are unnecessary and which are carrying the greatest load.  The unnecessary pieces could then be taken out which would help to reduce the cost of the bridge.  Steps could also be taken to help better distribute the weight on each member and joint of the bridge in order to maximize the carrying capacity of the bridge. 

            This past week our group tested a bridge and found that it was not very stable, since then we revisited the design of our bridge.  After our first test last week we designed a new bridge that was cheaper and more stable which we plan to test and further revise in the weeks to come.  This coming week we will begin those revision after testing the bridge again, we will also be trying to see what has worked for other teams and how we can include those aspects in our own design in the hopes of becoming closer to our final goal of having the bridge with the smallest cost to carrying capacity ratio.