Hi, this is Dr Ben Finio with Science Buddies, and this video is an introduction to the 2021 Fluor
Engineering Challenge. This year's challenge is inspired by towers throughout the world, like the
Space Needle in the United States, the Pitampura TV Tower in India, the Eiffel Tower in France,
and the CN Tower in Canada. The goal of this year's challenge is to build a tower that is
as tall as possible using nothing but paper and tape. That might sound easy, but there's a twist.
Your tower also has to support a can of food at the top for 60 seconds without collapsing.
You will have to think creatively and use your engineering design skills to build a tower
that is tall and can support the can of food. Even though you can only use paper and tape,
there are many creative ways you can use these simple materials to build a sturdy tower. For
example, notice how a flat piece of paper is very easy to bend. However if you roll the paper into
a tube or fold it over multiple times, it becomes much harder to bend. Also notice how squares and
rectangles made from sheets of paper that are only taped together at the corners are very
weak and will collapse easily. If you add diagonal members to form triangles, the structure becomes
much stronger. This is called a truss. Try using these techniques to practice building a tower.
You might want to start small and make sure you can build a tower that can support its own weight,
then see if your tower can support the weight of a can.
After you are comfortable with some basic tower construction techniques, you can start planning
for a taller tower. As your tower gets taller, it will become more difficult to support the
weight of the can. You might want to build it in stages, testing the design along the way.
It's okay if your tower fails. Analyze what happened and figure out how to make
your tower stronger. Don't give up - that's part of the challenge. How tall will your tower be?
There are some rules you will need to follow if you want to enter your tower design in the 2021
Fluor Engineering Challenge for a chance to win a cash prize for your school or
non-profit organization. Once completed, the tower must support one unopened can of food
for 60 seconds without collapsing. The can must be between 14 and 16 ounces or 400 to 450 grams.
You can only use paper and tape to build your tower. Printer, notebook, graph, and similarly
size construction paper are all allowed, up to 30 sheets total. Due to their different size and
strength, newspaper and cardstock are not allowed. Note that the amount of paper is not prorated. If
you only use part of a sheet it still counts as a whole sheet. One roll of clear office tape,
masking tape, or painters tape, up to 1 inch or 2.5 centimeters in width, is allowed.
Stronger tapes such as duct tape and packing tape are not allowed. Your tower can be taped to
the supporting surface like the floor, table, or countertop, but otherwise it must be freestanding.
For example, a person cannot hold onto the tower to support it after placing the can,
and you cannot tape it to the wall or chair for support. You can try this challenge by yourself
or in a team of up to four students. The challenge can be done at school or at home, but either way,
the kids are in charge. Adults can help with small tasks like holding something steady or
cutting pieces of tape, but all the tower design and construction should be done by the kids.
Your final score is based on the distance from the base of the tower to the bottom of the can,
and the number of pieces of paper you used, using this equation: final score equals distance from
the base of the tower to the bottom of the can in centimeters minus two times
the number of pieces of paper. Only paper used in your final design counts towards the score.
Sheets used in earlier prototypes do not count, so don't be afraid to try out different designs.
You can improve your tower and try as many times as you'd like to achieve a high score,
but you can only submit one score per team. This means you can take your time, work on
improving your design, and submit your score for your best tower. See the link to the written
instructions in the description below this video for complete contest rules and entry information.
Good luck and we look forward to your entry in the 2021 Fluor Engineering Challenge.