Jonathan Adolph - Cardboard Box Engineering: Cool, Inventive Projects for Tinkerers, Makers & Future Scientists

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Of all the creatures that have ever lived on this planet, we modern humans are the champions of making stuff. I know, I know: beavers build dams, honeybees create honeycombs, birds make nests, and spiders spin webs. Those are all very impressive, especially when you dont have thumbs! But none of that really compares to what people produce today, and if you doubt me, just ask your mobile phone as you are flying in a jet over a skyscraper. Weve invented a few things that have caused us problems (Im looking at you, atomic bomb!), but far more often, we come up with marvels of engineering that change our lives for the better.

Why is that? What allows people to be so good at building things?

In a word: science. We humans have science, the greatest tool ever invented for figuring out how things work, and how they could be made to work better. Thanks to the scientific method the process of making predictions and then testing them we can try out our ideas and separate the good from the bad. Science is what gives engineers and designers the knowledge to produce all the amazing devices that surround us including every toy, game, and electronic gizmo you own.

And heres the best part: You can be one of those people. You can be a designer and an engineer. With the help of this book, youll learn how to turn old boxes, cartons, tubes, and other cardboard into games, airplanes, robots, roller coasters, and more. And, in the process, youll see what engineering and design are all about.

To learn how to do anything right, you need to practice. And to practice engineering, you need stuff that can be engineered. Thats where cardboard comes in.

Cardboard is an amazing invention in its own right. Its easy to cut and assemble, but its also sturdy and durable. Even better, its free. You probably have a pile of it lying around your house right now: mailing boxes stacked in the basement, cereal boxes and cardboard tubes filling the recycling bin. That means you may already have what you need to start making stuff, and maybe even enough to make a project several times.

And thats important, because engineers know that projects rarely work perfectly the first time. In fact, the best engineers love to make things over and over because each time they do, they get a chance to improve the design. They start by building an experimental model, called a prototype, and then improve it using the scientific method they test the model, see if it works as expected, tinker with it if it doesnt, and then test it again. Whenever something doesnt work out, theyve learned something new.

Almost everything you buy travels by cardboard box 95 percent of all products in the United States, to be exact. That requires about 30 million tons of boxes each year.

Many corrugated cardboard boxes used for shipping have a stamp that gives their rating in an edge crush test, a measure of how strong they are. Look for it on the bottom of the box (A).

As the great engineer and inventor Thomas Edison said,When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.

The cardboard projects in this book let you do just this kind of tinkering. Theyre engineered in a particular way, but other options might be just as interesting. For each project, think about what you are trying to build, how it is supposed to work, and how you might be able to make it work even better. If you hit a snag, be like Thomas Edison and try something else. You might need to substitute a new material for one you dont have or come up with another way to attach two parts. Make adjustments, change the design, test out new ideas, be creative.