Historical Background
Da Vinci bridge is beautiful and unique structure which was first designed by Leonardo Da Vinci in 16th Century, hence the name. The beauty of the bridge lies in its simplicity due to the fact that bridge requires no nut, bolts or any kind of adhesives to support itself.
Characteristics of Da Vinci Bridge
1. Self-supporting structure
One of the key features of the Da Vinci bridge is that the bridge supports itself due to the positioning of the beams. In other words it is a self-supporting bridge.
2. Arch like design
The bridge is easy to construct since all you have to do is to interlock the beams in such a way that it creates an arch like shape.
3. Structural Stability
Another defining feature of the bridge is that the more weight you put onto the bridge the more stable it becomes. This is due to the fact that the bridge is self-supporting hence the load is applied onto the bridge, interlocking of the beams gets tightened.
How to make it?
You can make your own Da Vinci bridge using popsicle sticks or any wooden sticks by using the following steps:
Step-1 Take a wooden stick and place it in vertical position. Let’s call this stick as stick-A.
Step-2 Take two wooden sticks and place them parallel to each other. Both sticks must be placed perpendicular to the stick-A such that some part of the two sticks overlaps onto the stick-A.
Step-3 Now place another stick (call it stick-B) at about halfway onto two parallel sticks.
Step-4 Insert two parallel sticks such that some part of it is placed above stick-B while they come under stick-A.
Step-5 Insert another stick (let’s call it stick-C) perpendicular to the recently added two parallel stick as shown below.
Step-6: Insert two parallel sticks such that some part of it is placed above stick-A while they come under stick-C.
As you add more sticks by repeating the patterns above, the bridge will take the form of an arch.
Making Da Vinci bridge is certainly a fun activity which will not only give you a sense of achievement but will make you appreciate that amazing structure.
Note:
- Gently adjust the sticks, if require, to make sure that they are evenly spaced.
- To add more stability to the structure, you can hammer the head of the nail onto the wooden stick to create small pits as shown in the picture below:
You can watch the video here: