Leaning Tower of Pasta

Main Bar

Leaning Tower of Pasta

Canada is home to the tallest free-standing tower in the world: the CN Tower. You probably won't be able to match its 533 metres, but let's see just how sky-high you can get this skookum structure.

For a printable version of this project, click here.

Materials

• spaghetti (uncooked!)
• marshmallows (small)
• measuring tape
• all kinds of balls

Instructions

Psych! There are no step-by-step instructions for this project! You can do whatever you want with the materials. The object is to build a tower as high and as strong as you can using only spaghetti and marshmallows. How much weight will your tower support? Will it hold a ping-pong ball? A golf ball? A tennis ball? A basketball? A cannon ball? Give yourself points as follows:
Cannon ball: 50 points
Basketball: 20 points
Baseball: 15 points
Tennis ball: 10 points
Golf ball: 7 points
Ping Pong ball: 5 points

   Give yourself 1 point for every centimetre high your tower is.
   Give yourself an extra 5 points if you finished your tower before you ate all the marshmallows.
   Give yourself 5 extra points if your tower is “funky” looking (you’ll have to be the judge of this one).
   Give yourself 5 extra points if your tower makes your parents do a “double-take” when they get home from work.
   If your tower is able to hold more than one object, you get the points for both.

Ratings
   46 and up: You were born to build. You can work on my tree house anytime!
   33 to 46: Not bad! With a bit of duct tape, you'll make a first-rate builder.
   20 to 33: You'll do. Just don't stand too long under anything you build yourself!
   up to 20: Look out! Crash and burn time! Try again, and don't eat all your building supplies this time.

Tips and Hints

• Why not get together with some friends and have a tower-building contest? You can make all kinds of categories: tallest tower, most wind-resistant tower (blow really hard or use a hair dryer), strangest-looking tower, most marshmallow-loaded tower, etc.
• Experiment with your materials. Are marshmallows stronger in tension or in compression? What about spaghetti?
• Skyscrapers and towers can sway back and forth more than a metre on windy days. High winds can cause motion sickness in people working on the top floors. To brace structures against the wind, engineers design skyscrapers with reinforced cores or stiff external skeletons. Tuned dynamic dampers can also lessen the effects of wind. The huge dampers, which weigh hundreds of tons, offset the wind's force by sliding in the opposite direction to the building. Get out a hair dryer and see how much wind your tower can take.
• The world’s tallest totem pole was built to commemorate the 1994 Commonwealth Games held in Victoria, B.C. It’s 55 metres tall and took nine months to carve.