How to design a bridge from basics ?
Answer:
Here are some fun pages from Johns Hopkins.
http://www.jhu.edu/~virtlab/bridge/truss...
http://www.jhu.edu/~virtlab/spaghetti-br...
http://www.jhu.edu/news/audio-video/spag...
Here is an interesting article from knex
http://www.knex.com/educational_toys/rea...
http://www.knex.com/educators/view_lesso...
A higher performance real world tool is finite elements methods. I recomend the book by Bickford. Its accessible to a relatively entry-level engineer (you just need to know a little calc and diffeq to make it work, no variational calculi)
http://www.amazon.com/first-course-finit...
http://product.half.ebay.com/_w0qqprz110...
A bridge is basically a simple beam. The two things you need to check is how much it will bend under loading (deflection), and how much stress will be will be in the beams. Keep the deflection under l/360, and put a very conservative design load on the bridge that will never be seen, I suggest a 4 kips point load in the middle or a uniform load of 3 kips per linear foot.
Wood or Steel? Are you looking for just simple lumber sizes? Need to know more why you asked the question. Each problem has it's own particular best solution(s).
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