Egg Drop Project

Situation:  You are in your physics class learning about projectiles, force and inertia, and
the teacher suddenly says, "I am assigning you an egg drop project.  You may construct
the egg drop apparatus with whatever materials you want but the apparatus may not
exceed 10 centimeters on any side."

High School Physics Project

Objective:

 To build an egg drop apparatus to protect a raw egg that is dropped from the top
of the roof onto concrete, thrown from the bleachers, and finally able to withstand
your own weight for 3 seconds.

Restrictions:

 The container may be no longer than 10 centimeters on any side, or a diameter of

more than 10 cm if the container is round.  For each millimeter that the container
is off, a point will be deducted from the final grade.  This includes the use of
parachutes, etc.

Grading Criteria:

 If the student's apparatus does not withstand the first drop, he or she receives the
grade of a 65%.  If it does withstand the initial drop, he or she receives a 75%.  If
the egg inside the object survives being thrown from the bleachers, the student
receives a 90%, and if the apparatus is stood upon by you or your partner and it
withstands the weight for 3 seconds while protecting the egg, the student receives
the perfect score of 100%.

Construction of an Egg Drop Apparatus

Phase 1:  The Design

When you are designing this apparatus, there are a few things that you need to keep in
mind.  First of all, this device must be protective.  The raw egg inside must not even
crack at the first drop.  This is much harder to accomplish than one would think.  Second
of all, it has to be strong enough to withstand the weight of you or your partner.
Phase Two:  Testing

Request practice runs at the drop site before the actual project due date to make sure that
your apparatus will withstand these tests. Also, test standing on the object with your own
weight to determine if it might withstand the weight of your physics teacher.  The project
takes much trial and error and it is highly doubtful that you will succeed in your design
on the first trial.  You will most likely have to modify your current design or start
completely over and design a new apparatus.

Phase Three:  Actual Drop

Eggs should be provided by the teacher at the drop site so there is no way that a student
could modify an egg before the drop.  The student should bring a small repair kit for their
apparatus, i.e. tape, scissors, rubber gloves (if semi-solids were used), etc.  Be fully
prepared and bring all items to the drop site. If we are unable to drop these at school due
to virtual learning, you will have to attempt these at home, while video recording the
results. Make sure you record the time and distance of your horizontal throw off the
bleachers for the calculations needed in the write up.

Designing Tips
What worked, what didn't

Heavily constructed objects did not work.  Normal packing materials do not work every
time.  Even though one would imagine bubble wrap protecting the egg, it does not seem
to work every time. 

The lightest strongest materials worked. 

Dos:

 Use light and strong materials

 Use simplified apparatuses
 Test the device many times before the actual project due date
 Bring a repair kit to the drop site
 Make sure your apparatus is easy enough to open and close to show that the egg is
unharmed in between tests

Don'ts:

 Don't overcomplicate the design

 Don't use heavy materials if at all possible
 Don't restrict your planning time till the last day of the project.

Instructions if we continue on virtual learning:

You may construct your apparatus and test it at home and perform all of the calculations
in the write up. However, you and your partner must video the tosses and show me that
the egg is unbroken at the end. (When we return we will perform the experimental tosses
again just to be sure we are using any video trickery!) After you have come up with a
container to keep the egg safe, you can perform your trials at home and record them. The
first drop must be at least 6 feet. If you can venture out to the baseball diamonds climb to
the top and toss it (horizontally) from the top. Make sure you have help to time the toss
and record the distance it flew so that you can calculate the final velocity of your
container. After all trials are complete you will be doing a lab write up for this
experiment. The experiment, trials, write up and video uploads will be due the week we
return to school, tentatively. If things change, we’ll adapt. The directions and rubric for
the lab write up will follow in separate assignment so you can upload a Google doc.