Using only tape and straws, Emma and I built a tower capable of holding a baseball! Here’s proof!
This assignment from the Livingmath.net curriculum was not an easy project because there were no directions, just an assignment — build a tower from straws. Never having constructed anything like this nor ever having seen a straw tower, I was rather frustrated at the lack of detail offered. I mean, how can we make something that we have no concept of at all?
I could only find one resource that had directions — How to Build a Straw Tower Capable of Holding a Baseball. So we roughly followed the guidelines laid out there, and it worked. Sprite and I are not short on creativity, but we certainly need some sort of foundation to work on. The article fit the bill. Here are our steps.
First we had to cut off the bendy part of each straw. Then we made a triangle and a square to compare the strengths of each shape. It was easy to see that a triangle is much stronger than a square. But we followed our directions and made an octagon base pentagon base. (Whoops! Thanks, Chaz, for pointing out my error.)
For the side structures, we made long pieces from six straws by inserting straws into other straws.
We used tape to reinforce the joints. Here are our completed base and sides.
Then we began connecting the sides to the base. Just taping this thing together was tricky! We tried lots of ways before we found methods that worked. We used a LOT of tape. But there was nothing in the directions about being pretty. The one criteria was that it hold a baseball.
We also constructed a center support. Then we were exhausted and tired of yellow straws! So things got a bit silly!
The next day, we resumed work on the tower. We trimmed it to a shorter height and added horizontal supports all around. Not pretty, by any means, but it was strong! Now the test. Here is Sprite, gingerly testing the structure with a baseball.
IT WORKS!
Books with projects using straws:
Or cheat with a building kit:
OK. This looks like some serious fun!
Love seeing all you do.
It looks like sprite had a good time making this!
This is very neat! I will have to try this with my boys. I love your new Blog! 🙂
Very! Vwey! cool…. I love seeing all of your neat projects.
Blessings,
Dawn
YAY for Sprite and for you! Very cool indeedy.
Looks like fun. I bet my boys would have fun with this project.
The new blog is very nice. Looking forward to seeingwha you do with it. I will miss the old one though. 🙁
Just wanted to thank you for sharing this as you inspired me to have my oldest son build one.
http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2009/06/flurry-of-activity-x-6-end-of-school.html
that base is pentagonal not octagonal
Chaz,
You are so right! I did write “octagon base.” And it’s clearly NOT an octagon. Whoops! I will change that! Thanks so much for the correction.
i love th design, i’m doing it for an engineer project
The octagonal base is great for support.
Hi, i am doing a project just like this, but we haveto use paper clips instead of tape. anyone have ideas.
i would poke a hole threw the straw and attach the 2 paper clips toghther
thank you so much this really helped me in school
thanks! This helped me get an A!
@Patrick — Horray! What wonderful news!
Thanks for the help…I might use the idea =D
thats good..
do u also have some oter models
it faled me
Me and my partner, Heather are required to build a straw tower using 40 straws, 3 feet of tape, and 6 pipe cleaners. How many straws did you use? (:
Maybe you can give us some helpful tips on our tower?
love it thanks
thats good
hi…. can anyone tell me if i can build a straw tower made out of 30 straws??????
—–b’coz that’s my problem… we only to have 30 straws and have to create a strong foundation when slammed can stand again,,,,,,
yes you can
yes, very easy follow the above
I’m doing the same project at school, and i was just woundering how long did it take to make the straw tower?
about 1 hour (no break)
hey how about putting three legged straw towers on here
good design 🙂
my team in tech had to bulid one of this and were winning.
woww……. good design ..
Thank you so much! This really helped me with my science project. Especially the part about cutting off the bendy part of the straws!! 🙂