Stephen Henderson

UNST 123 Prof. Bagley

4/2/14

Spring Term Egg-Drop
Once again its time to revisit the egg-drop activity. This time around, things were quite
different. The basic principle was still in place; drop a container with precious egg cargo from a
set height, and hope that the egg doesnt break. However, in the third installation of egg-
dropping madness, the task was to fill a given container (a Chinese food take-out box) with any
material of our choosing, put the egg inside, then drop it from a second story balcony. This was
also the first non-group based egg-drop for our class.
My original idea was to surround my egg with rubber bands, then add lightly crumpled
notebook paper to fill in the empty spaces. I thought that wrapping three or four bands around the
egg would help to hold it inside the bag of rubber bands that I placed into the take-out box. Then
I simply used a few pieces of notebook paper to fill in the empty corners of the box. I had a fair
amount of confidence in this idea, as I assumed the loosely packed rubber bands would allow the
egg to bounce around just enough to keep it from breaking, yet not enough to hit the side of the
box that impacted the ground.
An alternate idea I had was a little bit more on the fly, and it was as simple as loosely
wrapping the egg in notebook paper, then doing the same as in the first box, and filling empty
corners with paper balls. I only made this second model because I was given the opportunity to
have an alternative, and I thought it might be a good safety. However, I didnt have much
confidence in this second model. The idea was very rushed and didnt have a lot of thought put
into it, so I didnt think it would work at all. The only thing that it did have going for it was the
fact that it weighed so little, whereas the rubber band box was significantly heavier. So the
advantage with having less mass would be that the paper only box wouldnt generate as much
force upon impact as the rubber band box would.
Both of my ideas came from my knowledge that eggs are strongest on their longitudinal
axis. Theoretically, if you were to squeeze an egg from its top and bottom points, it would not
break. Of course, sheer power can easily overcome this, but it does stand up to higher pressure
than the sides of an egg. With this knowledge in mind, I did my best to protect the more
vulnerable lateral axis of the egg. I placed more rubber bands around the sides of my first egg,
and more paper to protect the sides of the second one. With both boxes in hand, I headed out to
the drop zone.
Here it was, the moment of truth. From the second floor balcony of Cramer Hall, we were
tasked to toss our containers out onto the pavement below. The goal was to hit within 5 feet of a
marked X on the sidewalk. We all took our turns stepping to the edge of the balcony and
tossing out our boxes, and when it was all finished we rushed down to see if our eggs had
survived.
While the vast majority of the class had good results, I immediately realized that my
primary design, the rubber band filled box, had failed disastrously. Not only did the egg break,
but Im sure that the rubber bands that were snugly wrapped around it did their part in exploiting
any initial weaknesses caused by impact. However, the alternate model, a design in which I had
significantly less confidence, managed to defend the inner lining of the eggshell, although there
was some minor external damage. As expected, the weaker sides of the egg were the downfall of
my best laid plans.
While I was disappointed with my initial designs utter failure, I was pleasantly surprised
with the modicum of success that was had with the paper-only box. The egg itself wasnt
technically intact, but it wasnt truly broken either. There was only a small indent of cracked
outer shell on one side, and because the inner lining of the egg remained unscathed, no yolk or
egg white was lost in the drop. So in a practical setting, the egg would be completely usable. But
as for the standards of what we considered unbroken, it was decided that if encountered in a
store, I wouldnt buy a dented egg, regardless if it hadnt spilled any yolk. Therefore I am now
writing this paper. I did realize though, that if I werent as honest of a person as I am, I could
have easily gotten away with not writing this. Only one side of my egg was cracked, and the
other side showed no signs of damage. So its entirely possible that I could have palmed the
damaged side, showed off the unblemished face, and claimed that my box was successful. (And
Im only telling you this because Im an honest person).
What did I learn from this whole exercise? I saw numerous different examples of things
that did in fact successfully protect the egg from breaking. A box filled with Cheerios and bubble
wrap worked, as well as peanut butter, Jell-o and bubble wrap. Bubble wrap was a popular
option, but things as obscure as a box full of rice or mashed potatoes also produced success.
Even a box filled with nothing but cheerios kept its egg in one piece. Although none of these
things will probably help me in my future educational ventures, I suppose knowing a lot of good
ways to protect an egg inside a semi-sturdy container thrown from 20+ feet could be a useful life
skill. (But I doubt it).

Works Cited
Loadman, John, and Francis James. The Hancocks of Marlborough rubber, art and the
industrial revolution : a family of inventive genius. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2010. Print.
"Science Tricks - Surfing Scientist." Indestructible Egg. ABC Aus., n.d. Web. 2 Apr.
2014. http://www.abc.net.au/science/surfingscientist/indestructible_egg.htm
Peter Hunton (1995). Understanding the architecture of the egg shell. World's Poultry
Science Journal, 51, pp 141-147.