building a paper tower...ideas?
 

My physics class has to split into groups and construct a tower out of one sheet of regular printer paper (8.5x11) and 50 cm of Scotch tape. To pass, it has to be at least three feet tall. Anything over that will be extra points. The members of my group didn't feel like going for an ambitious design. We plan to build a triangular base and a kind of framework that holds a shaft of paper in the middle. We've tested it, and we can get four feet easily this way.

Does anyone have any other ideas for this project? I'm just curious to see what you guys come up with. If you have time, you should try to build one. I might be odd, but I've had fun on this project. If enough people do it, we can see who has the biggest paper shaft. I just used biggest and shaft in the same sentence. I didn't mean anything by it, I swear.

You can see the strength in paper simply by rolling it up into a cylinder and aplying pressure to the open cylinder ends. The paper can take quite a lot of pressure before it folds. So basically I think you hit upon the intrinsic property that is necisary for this physics project. You proly could have done the same with a square shaft, but it would have used more paper. Using a cylindrical shaft is both efficient and strong. Same way tube steel is used for roll cages in race cars. Strong yet light.

so one sheet of paper is supposed to go 3 feet tall? that's not very much to work with.

it doesnt have to hold anything up does it??
can you tape it to the floor???

http://photobucket.com/albums/1003/i...er_tower_2.JPGhttp://photobucket.com/albums/1003/i...aper_tower.JPG

here was my try at it. i took a sheet cut it into four pieces longways. then i proceeded to fold them into triangles and grooved them together. i took the bottom piece and tried to make it into a tripod. it would have worked had i not made a fold to define t0he legs, but because i did it kept falling over

wait, is it self supporting or not? is it leaning against that table?

It can be taped to the floor, other than that it has to be self supporting. In a few days I have to build mine in class. I'll see if I can get a picutre of it then, if not then maybe I'll build another one and take a picture.

I was messing around at work and came up with an idea. I started rolling the page from one corner, really tight. When it was about four paper widths thick I cut it off along the diagonal. This left me with a cylinder. I did the same thing from the other corners and then towards the middle of the paper. This gave me an s-load of cylinders ranging from a couple of inches in length to many inches in length. I took 5 of the medium sized ones to use as "legs" to hold the rest of them up. I then began putting all the cylinders together into a single column. The legs got attached to the column and my desk with tape. The cylinders fit together snugly enough that they didn't need any tape. The finished product kind of looked like a rocket with 5 legs sticking out the bottom holding it up. I didn't have a ruler but it was as tall as 4 sheets of paper (at least 44").

mine first attempt at this was leaning ive been in class most of the day and about to try another one now that i know you are able to tape to the ground

onetime2, you should do that paper rocket thing and take a pic of it. Or maybe the different sections- you've got me intrigued because I can't quite visualize it

Unfortunately I didn't have a camera at work and I couldn't leave it lying around so it's trashed.

Not sure how to describe it better. Ask any questions that might help me to get the idea across better.

The term cylinder is not accurate, theywere more like cones. The tip of one cone was put into the base of the next to connect them. All of these cones together formed a spire (very thin but long cone made up of about 20 smaller cones put together).

Does that help at all?

Cones definitely helped get a mental image. Thanks! I've had to make paper towers before, but we were given 3 sheets of paper. We had to stop because we ran out of ceiling room.

i have a simmaler project i have to make a paper tower with tooth picks, tape, and paper were aloud to use as many pieces of paper as many pieces of tape and 5 toothpicks were aloud to use tape to tape it to the ground and it has to hold a apple at the top any ideas?