Spaghetti Bridge Breaking Competition at UMaine
Contact: Victoria Blanchette, 581-2204; Eric Landis, 581-2170
ORONO, Maine – Students from Monmouth Academy will put spaghetti noodles — Delverde perciatelli #6, to be precise — to the test during the seventh annual Spaghetti Bridge Breaking Competition at the University of Maine. The event will be held on Tuesday, June 2 in Boardman Hall, room 8, from 9:15-10:30 a.m.
Thirty-two Monmouth students, including freshmen, sophomores and juniors, are working in pairs to design and build bridges, according to Jeff Gosselin, Monmouth Academy math teacher who first put this competition together. Gosselin retires this June, but hopes that the math department at Monmouth will continue the competition.
“The project is not an easy one to do and do well. Most of the students work with a partner and they learn about teamwork, patience, overcoming obstacles, deadlines, engineering applications and have fun at the same time. The competition has grown as the bridges have become better,” said Gosselin.
When asked what got him started, Gosselin replied, “I was at a conference in Providence, Rhode Island circa 1996 and heard a commotion coming from one of the meeting rooms. I followed the noise and saw a video being shown of a Spaghetti Bridge competition at a Rhode Island high school. It looked like fun. You can’t survive at the high school level if you and the kids can’t enjoy what’s going on.”
Twenty bridges that passed the preliminary round at Monmouth Academy last Friday will be entered in to the competition. The bridges were built in geometry (first year builders) and Algebra II (second year builders). A first-year bridge must hold 200 pounds (300 if it fails a spec: span; height; roadbed); second-year bridges must hold 300 pounds (400 if it fails a spec). If a bridge fails two specs, it is eliminated from the competition.
Competition is stiff and bridges have to hold up to not only a lot of weight, but to these criteria. Perciatelli is thick hollow pasta, and students must use Elmer’s glue to bond individual strands. Bridges must be at least three inches high and span at least five inches. They can weigh no more than one pound.
Gosselin remembered, “When the bridge won that held 12,250 pounds the entire group was going “crazy” as the numbers flew toward 10,000 lbs. When the bridge finally failed, ALL of the kids were screaming and giving high fives, not just the builder – who went to study engineering.”
The UMaine Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering will host the event.