Hungarian Students Build Spaghetti Bridge

Pasta. Cheap, filling and easy to prepare, it's a staple food for starving students all over the world.

But these noodles are not for lunch.

A team of engineering students from Nyiregyhaza College in Hungary will be using them to defend Hungarian honour at the Spaghetti Bridge Building World Championships.

The students use the principals learned in class and apply them to the construction of the bridges, an exercise that might seem frivolous at first.

But Laszlo Sikolya, Head of the Technical Department at the college sees a practical lesson in the competition.

[Laszlo Sikolya, Nyiregyhaza College]:
"The interesting angle here is that the material of the bridge is pasta, but in fact if the bridge was built of a different material then its
weight capacity and aesthetics would be just as important. So the students can gain practical experiences of statical and mechanical training."

It's painstaking and delicate work, and team-member Peter Sandor explains that the project will need to survive not only the tests of the competition, but the journey from Hungary to Canada as well.

[Peter Sandor, Engineering Student]:
"Since our pasta is very fragile we are only doing the filing of the parts, and then taking them bit by bit, so they don't get broken or damaged on the journey."

The competitors design and build the bridges, then load test them to the breaking point to choose the best design. This year's team has their work cut out for them.

The Hungarian team set a new world record last year, with a bridge able to hold a weight of 443 kilos.