Testing Your Bridge
Now that you've completed your bridge it's time to begin the testing of your bridge. You should allow the glue you used in your bridge construction to dry overnight before beginning this testing step.
You will need to download and print the testing log for this section. Once you have done that you should document your pristine bridge that you are about to test to destruction with a series of pictures. These can be taken either with a digital or conventional camera, and should have four pictures taken from the following examples:
 |
 |
| Top-Down | Sideways |
 |
 |
| Head-On | Quarter |
It doesn't matter if you used a normal camera and then scanned the pictures into your computer or simply transferred the image files from a digital camera. You will need to digitally edit your four images so that they are:
| - converted into JPEG files; - Each image is 300 pixels wide and 200 pixels tall; and - Each image file name is different from the other ones. |
Your teacher or parent will help you with this since the type of software you will be using will be different at each location that is doing this project. This can be done later in the project after your bridge has been tested.
Now that you've taken the four pictures with your camera you're ready to test your bridge. Make sure you follow the instructions in the test log and do this only under the supervision of your teacher or parent. In order to force you to do this you'll have to print out and use the test log.
Once you have finished testing your bridge, you can proceed to the report section to add your results to the bridges database.