Balsa Bridge

The company I work for has periodical 'Tech Challenges'.  These are normally coding tasks - build an AI player for a board game, that sort of thing.  The latest incantation, however is a much more engineering-related challenge - build a balsa bridge (within very specific parameters - http://bridgecontest.phys.iit.edu/public/international/2014/international_rules) to support as much weight as possible.

Since I'm not a trained structural engineer, I thought it prudent to do some testing.  Based on various designs on a truss simulator (http://ivanmarkov.com/truss-simulator.html), I decided upon my overall design.

Since there's no kill like overkill, I also added in a bit of 'secret sauce' - Titebond-3 ultimate wood glue in a precision applicator bottle, hot glue on the bottom of the supports to provide friction, Pitsco Lumberjack cutter for precisely angled cuts, and the basic cardboard covered with parchment paper and straight pins to assist with the gluing process.

While the bridge only ended up holding about 30 pounds, it still put on a decent showing of ~600x it's own mass - and there were quite a few good explosions. For your viewing pleasure, the destruction reel.