K'NEX Design vs. Real World Design- Durkin

After reading over my post from week five I agree with all the differences listed, I have not found any new differences since then. Last week during class we came up with new bridge designs built from K'NEX and we since have tested those designs.  At no point during this process did we discover new differences. There are many differences between the design of a real bridge and the bridge built out of K’NEX.  As with the difference between WPBD and real bridge design K’NEX also lack the range of joint options that a real bridge design would offer.  K’NEX do offer a wider range than WPBD but there are still not as many possibilities as there would be in the real world.  A K’NEX design also differs from a real world in the same way that K’NEX differs from WPBD in that WPBD and the real world both offer different options in thickness and material, K’NEX do not.  K’NEX also lack some lengths of members whereas in the real world and WPBD nearly any length is available.  K’NEX joints also tend to be somewhat fragile and snap under pressure; real world joints would not break as easily.  The cost calculations may also be somewhat off from real world prices, the costs assigned to the pieces also may not properly account for labor costs.

            This past week collaboration on a group bridge design began and new ideas were brought up that had not previously been considered. Next week this discussion will continue as well as hopefully testing one of the bridges that we built during the last class.  The bridge we built last class was very compact and hopefully very durable.  The cost of it was considerably low which suggests that if it is stable it will have a low cost to weight it can hold ratio. Next week we will test this bridge which will give us a better idea of how we need to adjust our bridge to make it more stable.