Materials
- Raw egg, or other payload that needs protecting.
- Container, like a cardboard tube, cup, box, etc.
- External protection materials, like balloons, rubber bands, craft sticks, straws, etc.
- Internal padding, like fabric, packing materials, paper, etc.
- Pen or pencil.
- Paper.
- Tape.
- Scissors.
Use cereal.
- Wrap the egg around with wet paper towels.
- Place the egg in one plastic bag and surround it with a puffed rice cereal.
- Fill four other small bags with the same cereal but do not put any eggs inside.
- Place all the bags inside of a larger resealable bag.
Container DesignsThese hard containers may be plastic food containers or cardboard boxes. Styrofoam, sponges, cotton balls, bubble wrap or even wadded newspaper can all make good padding inside the container. Give your students time to practice with a variety of materials before dropping their eggs.
Force goes down. When dropped on a pillow, the egg starts to slow down as soon as it touches it. A pillow increases the time the egg takes to stops.
Fill a small zip top bag with rice puff cereal and place the egg in the center of the cereal. Seal the bag and then fill the bottom of a larger zip top bag with cereal. Place the egg bag in the large bag, then pad the large bag with smaller cereal-filled zip top bags, keeping the egg bag in the center.
The first impulse is from the drop itself. Its momentum will increase due to the net force applied to it. The next impulse is from the landing. If the egg vehicle doesn't bounce, then the two impulses in magnitude are equal!
When an egg drops from a second-story window, it picks up 32 feet/second of speed for every second it falls. By the time the egg reaches the ground, it's going at about 24 miles per hour. And then, suddenly, its speed drops to 0 miles per hour (usually along with a big SPLAT).
The average mass of a medium egg is about 50 grams, so to develop a force of 30 kilograms pressing on the egg, you will have to develop an acceleration of about 600 g's. That is quite impressive!
To keep the topic simple, it can be said that the two most common factors that have a direct effect upon the amount of air resistance are the speed of the object and the cross-sectional area of the object. Increased speeds result in an increased amount of air resistance.
Calculations
- Acceleration: Toolbox: t=1.12seconds, distance=6 meters. a=2d/t ² a= 2(6)/1.2 ² acceleration of egg: 9.56 m/s ²
- Force of air resistance. Toolbox: gravity= 9.81m/s, acceleration=9.56m/s ² force of air resistance= g-a. Force of air resistance: 9.81m/s²-9.56m/s²= 0.25m/s²
- Final velocity of egg casement.
Procedure:
- Cut a square from the garbage bag that is 20 inches on each side.
- Use a hole punch to punch one hole in each corner of the piece of plastic garbage bag.
- Cut four pieces of 20-inch long string.
- Thread a piece of string through each hole in the bag and secure by tying the string firmly on each corner.
This can be explained by Sir Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion, which states that an object at rest remains at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same velocity (speed and direction) unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Because the egg is not moving at the beginning, it wants to stay that way.
The cross-sectional area of the skydiverAn open parachute increases the cross-sectional area of the falling skydiver and thus increases the amount of air resistance which he encounters (as observed in the animation below). Once the parachute is opened, the air resistance overwhelms the downward force of gravity.
In past egg drop assignments, some students have opted to make parachutes which break the speed of the falling egg and help the egg descend without harm. Draw and cut out a circle in the paper or garbage bag, approximately 30 inches in diameter. If necessary, use a lid or other round object as a guide.
Usually, it takes a little more than 5 ½ pounds of force to crack an eggshell — much less than the weight of a human being — but the precise amount of force needed depends on the direction in which that force is applied and how much the force is distributed (or not) over the surface of the shell.
Physics Behind the DemoThe Egg hitting the ground is a collision between the Earth and the Egg. When collisions occur, two properties of the colliding bodies are changed and/or transferred: their Energy and Momentum. This change and transfer is mediated by one or many forces.
Answer: For a brief nanosecond or two, the egg didn't move because it was already stationary (not moving). But then, as usual, the force of gravity took over and pulled the egg straight down toward the center of the Earth.
The egg is strongest at the top and the bottom (or at the highest point of the arch), which is why it does not break when pressure is added to both ends.
When the egg hits the ground the forces of the impact are distributed around the shell so it does not break.
The box you use should crush on impact, so use a material like cardboard instead of plastic or metal. You can line a box with any cushion or soft material, such as foam, sponges, bubble paper, cotton or marshmallows. Egg crate foam works particularly well, because its shape is perfect for holding the egg in place.
Materials for the Egg Drop Challenge
- cardboard tubes.
- newspaper.
- old boxes.
- paper.
- tape, glue, rubberbands.
- popsicle sticks.
- baggies.
- straws.
If an egg is dropped on concrete, it usually breaks. If an egg is dropped on grass, it may not break.
