Design Fundamentals II, Undergraduate 2013
Materials: 52 standard playing cards
Tools: Razor
Materials: 52 standard playing cards
Tools: Razor
Challenge: To make a cantilever able to support a tennis ball out of nothing but a deck of playing cards.
Constraints:
Must stretch at least 18 inches from the support
All cards used must remain in one piece
Cantilever system must be reproducable
A Single Link consisted of 3 cards: 1 bent card (bottom) to withstand compression, and two cards (top) to connect units and withstand tension.
Links In Series
The System flexed with the added weight of a tennis ball, but could reach a distance of 24 inches.
Construction of the system (below) required only a razor and some folding.
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Next Iteration?
Durability:
The cards could be permanently damaged if any of the bottom cards became misalligned, or if weight was added suddenly.
The system could only be attached to the fence at certain points; it relied on slipping an anchor card into a gap between the glass and the frame to hold tension.
Critical Dimentions:
Finding the critical dimensions and ratios of the system would be useful for scaling the project to be able to use non-standard playing cards.
