These were probably the best engineered cardboard kayaks, canoes and rafts (if that’s what you can call them) you’ll ever see.
In April, Colorado School of Mines students partook in the esteemed engineering school’s 91st Engineering Days competition, highlighted by its annual Cardboard Boat race on Clear Creek in Golden, Colo. Around 100 entries partook in the challenge, in which the students can only use cardboard and duct tape to create their water craft. Then the craft must survive a trip down the Clear Creek Whitewater Park without falling apart while still adhering to the rules of the Archimedes Principle. (Spoiler alert: some did, some didn’t).
The event drew a packed-banks crowd of onlookers, there to witness the cardboard carnage and cheer the thrills and, often, spills. The event also prompted a host of responses on the school’s social platforms, including “The students are a lot better engineers and designers than they are paddlers.”
What to see for yourself? Click the link below:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIZTVW2RZsm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIZTVW2RZsm/?igsh=MXFjdGliendzd3FjMg==