How to build newspaper tower?

Question

How can I build a 1 meter tower made only of newspaper & 2 ft of tape that will sustain alot of weight on top? What type of structure should I use?

Answer 1

Tubes

Carefully roll the newspaper into small (1/2 to 1 inch or 1 to 2 cm) diameter cylinders. Take care not to wrinkle the paper. Wrinkles will weaken the structure.  The paper should be rolled as tightly as possible.

You don't have to use an entire sheet of newspaper for each cylinder, but each one should consist of at least three wraps of newspaper. Since you apparently don't have a budget for the newspaper, more is better.

If the length of the paper is less than a meter, you can interleave sheets of paper to make up the proper length or you can roll the sheets somewhat diagonally and trim the ends.

Tape the cylinders sufficiently so that they hold their shape. You shouldn't need very much tape for eacy tube. Once you have a number of cylinders, group them into a bundle and tape the bundle together. The bulk of your tape budget should be retained for this purpose.

You should be able to create a surprisingly strong structure if you build it neatly.