Egg Drop Protection Guidelines
Construction: Build your protective egg cases.
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Egg case must fit completely in a closed
shoebox. You may add flat
decorations to the outside of the box but you may not change the aerodynamics
of the box.
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Egg must be held in a ziplock sandwich bag
for easy clean up.
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Must be designed so that the egg can be
placed in the box right before the test and EASILY removed from the box right
after testing.
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Egg case can be made out of any materials
you bring from home or are provided in class but they must be safe and school
appropriate. Nothing brittle or
sharp. No glass. No allergens.
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Case must appear sturdy and well
constructed. You will not be
allowed to drop anything that looks like it might fall apart.
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Any liquids or messy materials must be
contained or used in a way that they will not leak or explode when dropped.
Diagram/Schematic: Neatly draw and label a diagram on a
8.5 x 11 blank, white sheet of paper showing how you built your protective egg
case. ONE diagram per group.
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Draw at least two different views – top
and side views.
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All materials are labeled.
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The purpose of the material is briefly
described (Structure/Safety Cell; Impact absorption/crumple zone; energy
redirection…)
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“Weigh in”
right before the drop and record the mass of your egg drop case on your
schematic. You will need the
mass for later calculations. The
egg must be in the case before weigh in.
Egg
Drop: Use
your knowledge of physics and engineering to keep your egg safe as it falls 5.1
meters off the balcony! Time your
drop to calculate your egg’s velocity and carefully observe the impact. After the egg drop you will remove your
egg and examine it for damage. ALL
EGGS AND EGG CASES WILL BE TREATED WITH RESPECT AFTER THE FALL! NO TRASHING OR
DESTROYING ANYTHING!
Analysis
and Revision:
Write an extended paragraph assessing the effectiveness of your design
and consider modifications that could improve your original design. EACH GROUP MEMBER MUST WRITE AN
EXTENDED PARAGRAPH. PLEASE NO
DUPLICATES.
- Describe what happened to your egg after the drop and
estimate impact force using
the
formula Force = mass x
velocity / time Use
0.1 second for time to stop since it
was a very
fast stop time.
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Include an explanation of why each
material was used and use quantitative or qualitative data to evaluate the
effectiveness of each material.
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Explain different structural
elements/design choices and use qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate
their effectiveness.
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Describe possible improvements and explain
why you believe those improvements are necessary. If you feel your device was perfect as it was, why? Explain
why your “egg helmet” or “egg packaging device” was the best it could be.
Conclusion: Write a paragraph summarizing how the
egg drop experiment relates to the physics concepts we have been learning about
in class. ONE PER PERSON. NO DUPLICATES.
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Describe the different forces that act on
falling objects. Use vector force
arrows to show the direction of the forces AND make the sizes of the arrows
relative to the relative size of the force (the biggest force gets the biggest
arrow).
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Use Newton’s first and second laws (Inertia
and F=mxa), velocity, and gravity in your conclusion and explain how they apply
to your egg case and egg and what happened to them in the end.
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Connect your experiment to real world
engineering problems such as helmet design, car safety, shipping containers for
fragile mail, airdropping humanitarian aid after a natural disaster, etc…
