We set out to investigate Roman columns. Lots of different shaped columns are possible, from circular to square, triangular to octagonal, but which is the strongest? We all worked together to measure, fold and glue five different column shapes. We then took pairs of columns, placed a pediment across the top and started adding weights until our structure collapsed…

We discovered that the strongest shape was the cylinder (the Romans knew what they were doing!) while the weakest was the triangular prism. Just two sheets of paper rolled into a cylinder with a small overlap for glueing held over two and half kilograms!