Bridges
There are many different kinds of bridges. The goal in the World of Goo is often to create a truss structure to span an obstacle in order to finish a level.
picture of world of goo before and after
Trusses are a very simple yet effective way to build a bridge. Trusses can be used to construct bridges alone or can be used as reinforcement as in some suspension bridges. Trusses are basically a series of triangles arranged in order support a specific load. Below are some pictures of the forces involved in truss design.
These pictures are from a Truss Bridge design website. The picture on the right shows how the triangular structure can handle the loads, w. The figure on the right shows how to find the forces in those triangles based on statics.
If a bridge is not created correctly in the World of Goo the bridge will collapes and the level has to be restarted. Faultly bridge consrution in the real world leads to destruction on a larger scale. One of the infamous bridge collapeses is the Tacaoma Bridge colloapes of 1940. This bridge is a suspension bridge over Puget Sound.
Tacoma Bridge Collapes
One of the accepted hypothesis of how the bridge collapesed is aeroelastic fluttering. There were observations early on in the bridge development that wind was caused the bridge to move. On the day that the bridge fell the wind caused the bridge to occilate. As the wind increased the movements of the bridge coupled with the wind movement and the bridge moved in a more exagerated motion. This created more stress than the bridge was designed to deal with and it collapesed(Billah,Scanlan,1990).
This failure promted research in to bridge development. When the bridge was rebuilt it was stiffened with trusses to reduce twisting that occurred orginally. Also wind gates were installed and its anchorage points were reinforced (Wasington State DOT).