Egg Drop Engineering Project- PS
Purpose: Design a package that will protect an egg from breaking when it is dropped from the 2nd floor of a
building onto tile.
You have 2 days to design, build, and test a protective container for your raw egg using the materials listed
below. Only the materials listed may be used, but all are not required. Take a picture of your contraption
before the drop. You MAY work independently or in group of 2. No more than 2!!
Materials:
(You do NOT have to use all of the materials but you may ONLY use the materials from this list.)
 1 raw egg
 4 paper 5 oz. Dixie cups
 1 meter of string/yarn
 5 sheets of paper (8 x 11)
 10 regular straws
 6 rubber bands
 50 cm of masking OR scotch
 25 wooden toothpicks
 glue
tape
 10 cotton balls
Glue, tape, string, etc. is for either holding your structure together or for packing material. Your egg may be
surrounded by supplies, but they may NOT be glued or taped to your egg.
You may NOT:



coat your egg in glue
glue anything to your egg
use the glue, tape, string, or anything else to strengthen your egg
Paper:
Submit an “eggsellent” paper outlining how you built your egg’s protection, and explaining why you made the
choices you did. What were you trying to accomplish to keep your egg from breaking? You MUST use terms such
as force, impulse, momentum, potential energy, kinetic energy, mechanical energy, elastic collision, and inelastic
collision. You MUST also include calculations for your egg’s:
 The Potential Energy of your egg just before it drops. (Use 8.5 meters for the height of the drop)
 Final Velocity just before your egg hits the ground
 The Force of Gravity on your egg. (There is a balance in class to mass your egg for you.)
 The momentum with which your egg hits the ground.
 The Kinetic Energy just before it hit the ground
 The Mechanical Energy of the system.