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Does anybody have a clue for the tower like a material or suggestion to get started I'm trying to prepare early and need some ideas.

First of all, next time post it in this kind of forum: viewforum.php?f=434

If you've done Bridge last year, it's just that but a different structure. I don't know what you specifically need help on, but since you asked about materials, balsa wood is your best way to go. Whatever specifics you need might be on the rules or the wiki (https://scioly.org/wiki/index.php/Tower) - I suggest you look through them yourself as it's a better way to retain information. Please ask if you have any more questions!

Balsa and basswood both work; if I recall correctly(bit rusty from my Bridge days haha) bass works well for tension and balsa for compression. Look up Balsa Engineering or "Tower Science Olympiad" on Youtube and you'll probably see some good examples of designs. Another website I loved was Garrett's Bridges. There's lots of cool designs and good info on gluing joints/other techniques!
Also, the page Onshape linked above has the answer to all of your questions. Please post in the correct forum next time so others can find this information as well--It helps the forum stay organized

yigoro8733 wrote: ↑September 10th, 2023, 1:09 am Does anybody have a clue for the tower like a material or suggestion to get started I'm trying to prepare early and need some ideas.

Moved your posts to the correct forum!

I did bridges last year and was wondering if I should be expecting similar scores for towers this year. Just wondering so I can have a gauge of how light my tower has to be

Greenlan000 wrote: ↑September 21st, 2023, 6:08 am I did bridges last year and was wondering if I should be expecting similar scores for towers this year. Just wondering so I can have a gauge of how light my tower has to be

Winning towers will be a bit lighter than winning bridges. I'd expect top scores at B level to be over 5000. As usual, competitiveness will vary a lot depending on where you are.

Hello. I'm new to Towers was wondering what are the benefits and downsides of going for the bonus tower and if it even is worth it at all.

From what we have seen so far I don’t think we will be going for the bonus just because if it doesn’t make it you r tower is screwed along with the fact that a tower that works for the bonus will probably score similar to one that doesnt go for the bonus just because of the extra weight needed for the bounds to work. There is a YouTube channel called the balsa engineer and he explains it a lot better than I can

Is the bonus worth it?

Going by scores from the last time towers was run with this shape, a nationals-standard B tower might weigh 4g and hold 15 kg, if built not for the bonus. So that would be a score of 3750.

Suppose you build a larger tower to get the bonus. Suppose you're successful. If your tower weighs less than 5.33g, you beat the non-bonus tower. If it weighs more than 5.33g, you lost.

Or make a similar comparison for a heavy tower. Suppose you hold the full load with a 10g non-bonus tower. You score 1500. A bonus tower weighing 13.33g and holding the full load gets the same score.

In reality, you'd want to over-build the bonus tower a bit, because you really have to get the bonus if you attempt it, so you want to be sure. If you're going for the bonus, failing at 14.5kg is a disaster. If you're not going for the bonus, it's OK.