Balsa Wood Tower Research Paper

My team’s second prototype balsa wood tower performed significantly better than our first tower. The first tower held 27.5 lbs. while the second held 90 lbs. The main differences in the towers come from the increased thickness of load-bearing wood. We made the four corner pieces three sticks thick instead of only one stick. We also decreased the amount of cross pieces to make sure we were under weight. The both towers ended up crushing because the weight was unevenly distributed on the bottom. On the first tower, the cross pieces were opposite on either side, but on the second tower, the cross pieces mirrored on either side. Even though the second tower’s weight bearing strength was higher, it buckled under. Our competition tower will be very