Frame (balsa wood tower constructing) In order to build the tower as tall as we can, we decide to make the base triangular. Because triangle is not only stable, but also can save a lot of materials.

To strengthen the whole tower, we decided to make the bottom structure much shorter

than the upper structure because the bottom is act as the foundation and it must be stable.

To join the sticks together, first we tried tape, but it is not very firm Then, we used pin to connect the sticks the way because there is a gap between two sticks and it is hard to fix. below, and it becomes better now

Then we move to the top structure. This time we don’t cut out any stick, therefore, The whole structure becomes slant because of the long upper structure.

So we started to add some horizontal sticks

between neighboring sticks in order to balance the force of the upper structure. We also used

pin to reinforce the joint.

In the bearing test, our tower shows the good fastness ability in each part of the structure but the joints are very weak so unfortunately the tower bended quickly and finally the joints between the top and the bottom broke down. I think the reason is that we didn’t fix the tape properly so the joints are easily to twist, that is why the whole tower is slape.