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Egg Drop Project

post #1 of 25
1/29/07 at 10:30pm
Thread Starter 
Well first off the restrictions are 1600 cubic centimeters and no more than 1kg before the 3 grade A large eggs are in there.

So I was thinking about just bubblewrapping a peanut butter container, with a fair amount of peanut butter then dropping it from about what I think is like 20-40 feet is the height we are dropping from.But lets just say 50 to be sure. But that will probably violate the weight restriction.

So I thought maybe some design with straws or toothpicks but I don't think that will work very well let alone think of a design that will dissipate the force of the cement. So any possible suggestions or just ideas of materials?

And for those that read my thread on my research project, I decided on the firebombing of Japan and I'll be doing a case study with the Atomic bomb.
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post #2 of 25
1/29/07 at 11:03pm
When I did this in grade 9 (doesn't everyone? ) I used a big styrofoam sphere/ball acquired at the hardware store. Cut it in half, hollowed half an egg shape out of either piece, lined it with some nice soft foam, secured the egg, and sealed the contraption shut with lots of rubber bands. The egg survived several drops while in the safety device and came out unscathed! My device which took all of 2 minutes to figure out competed with many far more elaborate parachute-based devices, very few of which actually worked. So remember to apply the KISS principle.
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post #3 of 25
1/29/07 at 11:06pm
I did one back in 10th grade that worked really well. Don't know if its been mentioned or if you can use it or not but...Jell-O or gelatin. Just make some jello around those eggs in whatever your specific dimensions are so that you can maximize volume. and there you have it.

Pretty damn impact resistant stuff.

I suggest testing it a couple times if you are unsure. Though youre probably already going to do that.
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post #4 of 25
1/29/07 at 11:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonta View Post
I did one back in 10th grade that worked really well. Don't know if its been mentioned or if you can use it or not but...Jell-O or gelatin. Just make some jello around those eggs in whatever your specific dimensions are so that you can maximize volume. and there you have it.

Pretty damn impact resistant stuff.

I suggest testing it a couple times if you are unsure. Though youre probably already going to do that.
Yesssss. That's what I did too! We were only allowed a pretty small container - and I used a cup filled with Jello to suspend the egg in and then wrapped bubblewrap in a spherical shape with foam in between layers...

Boiled or raw, by the way?
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post #5 of 25
1/29/07 at 11:42pm
I remember having to do this for science olympiad back in 8th grade.

We only got a couple of toothpicks, popsicle sticks, a few strips of paper, a couple rubber bands, some string and some tape.

Needless to say it didn't work too well. At all.
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post #6 of 25
1/29/07 at 11:44pm
Shaving cream. I dunno if the gel kind will work, but get actual cream like Colgate or Barbasol. You can basically put an egg in a ziploc bag, fill it with cream to where it's puffy, and zip it up. Toss that sucker around and the egg should survive.

edit: This is at a bare minimum. You may want another layer around the bag to protect the egg(s) from being able to physically hit against a hard surface, but if you get 'em in the middle of enough shaving cream, that may be all the cushion you need.
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post #7 of 25
1/29/07 at 11:57pm
What's with us Head-Fiers and the jello method? That's definitely what my group did back in the day!

Note about jello: Do not leave it at school for an extended period of time. It will grow stuff and smell terrible.
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post #8 of 25
1/29/07 at 11:58pm
Soak the egg in vinegar for 6 weeks... it'll bounce!
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post #9 of 25
1/29/07 at 11:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonta View Post
Don't know if its been mentioned or if you can use it or not but...Jell-O or gelatin.
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post #10 of 25
1/30/07 at 12:46am
Make a parachute? Just remember to have a small hole in the top to vent air.
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post #11 of 25
1/30/07 at 12:58am
encapsulate the eggs inside a styrofoam!!! thats wat one of friend did, it worked. however we were just using one egg

or you can use lots of cotton balls to avoid colision.
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post #12 of 25
1/30/07 at 1:10am
We did this last year in 11th since that's when we take physics. We werent allowed to use any substances. My friend didnt follow directions and literally dipped the egg into a peanut butter filled box. Yeah....didnt work.
We couldnt make parachutes either. It's pretty hard with tons of restrictions.
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post #13 of 25
1/30/07 at 1:17am
Ah, I was very proud of my egg drop contraption - it was more sophisticated than your average "put soft stuff around the thing and hope it lives" approach.

I took a tennis ball can and attached two tension springs to the top, then put the egg in a plastic bag and hooked the springs to the bag. When the thing hit the ground, the springs stretched and absorbed the fall.

In theory.

It all depended on the can staying upright during its fall, so I attached fins. But there was wind and it blew the thing over and it landed completely upside down. Quite a miserable failure, really, because not only did the egg not survive, but it was pretty heavy - barely under the limit.
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post #14 of 25
1/30/07 at 1:31am
Parachutes won't slow the fall enough prevent damage. Parachutes are good for drag, keeping the orientation of the structure aligned. i.e., so it won't spin or turn around, that way you can save weight by just cushioning one side instead of all sides.

You want something to spread impact force. Jello, peanut butter, really viscous stuff works well. This should be closest to the egg.

You want something to absorb impact force. The more force this absorbs, the less is passed onto your spread impact layer. You want to absorb as much force as possible. Absorbing here usually mean breaking, crushing, deforming, or counter moving somehow. Notice how F1 cars break up into lots of pieces when it impacts? That's reducing force. Stryofoam works, or you can get more creative.

You might need a structure to hold everything together. To save weight, it can double as the absorbing impact force layer.

So, maybe egg in jello in plastic cup in half stryofoam shell suspended under a parachute?

Remember to test it first.
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post #15 of 25
1/30/07 at 2:32am
Thread Starter 
Raw eggs of course. And the teacher will hand them out the day of, to avoid "tampering."

Would it even be possible to fit 3 Grade A Large eggs into a 9 inch styrofoam ball so the impact wouldn't damage them? Way too many restrictions for this. And because I wouldn't be able to use my own eggs, the gelatin idea would have to be thrown out unless I can think of a way to insert the eggs after the gelatin is made and secure them.

I could just build a container that models the idea of the IBM Thinkpad hard drive protections where an outer container housed another container which is being held in mid air and the tension of the elastic would allow movement so it wouldn't snap but enough so on impact it would protect the eggs. And for added security have some of those air bag things that Amazon uses now or something.

Sorry for my atrocious writing, my head hurts thinking about how to do this and the Catholic Social Teaching project at the same time.
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