geometry students sacrificed their crunchy fettuccini creations for the sake of science and mathematics Friday as part of the school's 14th annual Pasta Bridge Competition.

Each year, the school's geometry students are tasked with designing a bridge made of only Ronzoni fettuccini and Elmer's White Glue that weighs no more than 12 ounces. Qualifying bridges are then judged on maximum weight supported, efficiency (maximum weight supported/mass of bridge) and aesthetic value. Building bridges out of pasta can be tedious work, but the annual competition has developed into a student favorite.

"Kids come in with lots of questions and frustrations, but it's almost like a rite of passage that they complete it," geometry teacher Katie Ometz said. "They have fun with it, it's exciting." The competition is held in the high school's auditorium and broadcast simultaneously on a giant projection screen to the right of the stage so students in attendance can get an up-close view of all the fettuccini-fed furor.

Geometry teacher Brian Lariviere, the event's creator, introduces each pasta bridge before placing it down on center stage to endure the test of its life. Brawny students dressed more for a deadlift session than a geometry competition carefully hoist barbell plates one-by-one atop each pasta bridge until the fettuccini fractures under the growing weight.

The event leaves no survivors, just an ever-growing mountain of pulverized pasta parts that gets periodically swept into a garbage bin in front of the stage.

Student pasta bridges need hold only 25 pounds to receive full credit, but any of the decently constructed ones can support 40 to 50 pounds, Ometz said.

Each year there are about 10 bridges school-wide that withstand over 200 pounds. The all-time record is 795 pounds.