Bridge made without nails or glue

Today we are experimenting on the impact of a distinguished figure: Leonardo da Vinci. He was born near Florence in 1452 – America had not yet been discovered at that time! He is considered one of the most famous scientists in human history. We know his great works of art like the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper, but Leonardo was not only an outstanding painter, he was also a sculptor, architect, engineer and inventor. In his time, wars between principalities and kingdoms were very common and rulers repeatedly hired Leonardo to invent clever gadgets for them.

Quick Installation

Rivers were a big problem. How will the soldiers cross the water? Almost no one can swim. If they wanted to build a bridge, it would take a very long time, it would be very expensive, and most important of all, the enemy would of course notice when the bridge was built for weeks. What was needed was a bridge solution that used few and cheap materials, was easy to transport and could be installed quickly.

Leonardo had an idea!

Its bridge required no nails or glue, consisted only of boards, and could be carried in soldiers' luggage. Best of all, the more pressure you put on it, the stronger it gets! This enabled the soldiers to cross the river safely.

And now we want to try this out in the form!

All you really need are a few wooden “boards” onto which ice cream sticks or coffee stirrers fit. As with braiding or weaving hair, the wooden sticks should be placed over and under each other so that they do not slide off each other. This works best when the cross beam is supported by two longitudinal beams that are in turn located on another cross beam.

As with fabric, the “once, once” rule applies. Try your own bridge! If it still doesn't work, there's no reason to despair. You can find step-by-step instructions at this link: https://www.sciencepool.org/index.php/ferien-freizeit/experimente

Send questions about the week's experience to [email protected].