Friday, July 6, 2012

Egg Drop


The idea behind our egg drop container was to have something that was small to reduce bouncing around inside the container, padded to hopefully prevent cracking from the impact when it landed, and light so it would reach maximum velocity relatively quickly. In our small air tight tupperware container, we packed as much stuffing as would fit in order to cushion the egg. After sealing it tight, we taped spongey pieces of foam around the tupperware to break the fall and extend the contact time.

As you can see in our diagram, there was weight force pulling the egg down, normal (contact) force pushing the egg up, and air resistance also pushing the egg container up on its way down.

Despite all of our efforts, the egg didn't survive the drop. I think we focused too much on making the container light rather than spending our time trying to figure out how to decrease the impact on the egg. We should have added more padding and made the container more air resistance so that the terminal velocity would be slower than gravity.


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