Name_______________
Physical Science
Period_______________
The Great Egg Drop
Your mission:
Today your goal is to design a container that will protect an egg, when dropped from extreme heights.
You must be able to explain how and why each component of your container contributes to your strategy of reducing
impact force
The purpose:
Be able to explain and apply the 3 basic strategies for reducing the impact force of a
moving object.
The parameters:
You will have 15 minutes to build a container with your group
You will drop your egg from a height of 3 meters, and if successful, from out the window.
You can use any materials you receive, but will not receive any new materials, or a
replacement egg
It should take less than 30 seconds to remove your egg, after the drop, and it must be
removed completely to check it
You should design your container according to a strategy which you will outline below
The materials:
1 bag
12 cotton balls
5 paper cups
10 cotton swabs
5 drinking straws
15 stirring straws
100cm masking tape or painters tape.
Initial Research Day 1
Terms : Research the following terms and write a definition for them.
Crumple Zones
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Aerodynamic drag
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Car Suspension
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Ablative Plating (Fictional)
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How do crumple zones work? (Reading)
https://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-regulatory-devices/crumple-zone.html
1. What factors are involved in designing safer cars?
2. What is the best method to reduce the amount of deceleration in a crash?
3. How do crumple zones effect the deceleration in a car crash?
4. What parts of the car cannot crumple?
5. What happened to Michael Waltrip on the race track and how did his car help him to survive
the crash.
6. How did the stiffness of the car effect the crash with Dale Earnhardt?
Initial Strategy: As you consider the materials, recall that impact force, or any force, is the product of
mass*acceleration. Write an initial strategy that considers as many methods as possible to reduce impact force:
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Pre-drop analysis:
Sketch your safety structure in the space, below, and label it. An example is given, which used slightly different
materials
Sketch of Safety apparatus. Pre-Build.
Describe the container. For every part of your
container, you need to be able to say
1.
2.
What you did to your container
How it figures into your strategy
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Sketch of Safety apparatus. Post Build.
Post-drop reflection:
Did your container actually follow the strategy you intended it to (did it fall the way you planned?). Explain:
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Restate your strategy.
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Describe if it was successful, and why/why not?
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What strategies did you see from other groups? Were any successful, and if so, why?
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Even if your egg drop container was successful, what would you do differently next time?
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How would your egg drop experiment have been different if you were given a quail egg instead of a chicken egg?
How would it have been different if you were given an Ostrich egg?
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Exit Slip Questions: (completed after discussion/lesson)
The picture below shows a man in Varanasi, India, resting on a bed of nails. Which principle about impact force
allows him to do this without getting hurt, and why?
Hitting a homerun in baseball is difficult, because it requires a lot of force (why A-Rod took steroids). Most
homeruns are hit off of fastballs. Which principle about impact force says that this makes sense, and why?
After Jayden Lucas tries to dunk a basketball, he bends his knees as he returns to the ground. Which principle about
impact force says that he should bend his knees instead of just landing straight-legged, and why?
Weight classes exist in different sports like boxing wrestling and MMA . Which principle of force and the factors
involved in generating it explain why it is a regular process to ensure fairness of bouts?