Finding The Critical Load

     Discovery participants across Cincinnati have been having a blast learning about Civil/Structural Engineering in the Critical Load design challenge!  In small teams, students are tasked with thinking like a structural engineer to design a structure using twelve playing cards that can hold as much weight as possible before collapsing.  Students learn that the critical load is the max weight a structure can bear including its own weight. Students find the critical load by stacking metal bars on their structure until the moment of collapse and counting the weight.