The paper tower test

Two paper towers waited on the design classroom’s testing table. Both were stable while untouched: neither leaned nor wobbled. The challenge was different, though. Could either tower withstand ten seconds of moving air without falling?

Amir pressed a leftover strip of paper. It curved smoothly instead of snapping. “It’s flexible,” he said. That made it useful for building arches, but he wondered what would happen when the fan pushed against a whole tower.

The teams were allowed to reinforce weak areas by adding folded strips for support. One team had used that option around its tower’s middle. After the fan trial, a visitor saw one tower folded over and announced, “It could never have been stable.”

Amir picked up the build notes and test log. They would show which tower failed, what had been changed, and what conditions the trial actually tested.