Imagine you are an engineer who needs to test a scale model of a

footbridge. It will be a 1/20 scale model. The footbridge will cross

over a busy road and allow people to cross the road safely. How

could a relatively small design error of 2 centimeters in the model

system cause a significant problem in construction of the bridge?

Question

Biology

Spencer Owens

21 August, 00:56

Imagine you are an engineer who needs to test a scale model of a

footbridge. It will be a 1/20 scale model. The footbridge will cross

over a busy road and allow people to cross the road safely. How

could a relatively small design error of 2 centimeters in the model

system cause a significant problem in construction of the bridge?

+5

Answers (1)

Know the Answer?

Jon Herman · Answer 1

The problem will be because:

The error in the construction of the bridge will be actually 40 cm.

Explanation:

When you, as an engineer, listen about a scale 1/20, it means that for each 1 cm in the model, it will be 20 cm in the real footbridge (20 times upper to the scale model), then how the error in the model is 2 cm, the real error is 40 cm, in this case, imagine that you didn't know that the bridge will have an error of 40 cm, which is approximately 1,31 ft, from a side of the bridge you begin with the correct measure, and the other side you use the measure with the error of the 40 cm, the result is that when you going to finish the bridge in the center, this won't match, making more expenses to correct that big error.