Designing Safe Vehicles (Egg Crash Cars)
Introduction:
The popularity of the automobile has brought with it some undesirable effects. Among these are air pollution,
traffic jams, and traffic fatalities. Each year, thousands of people are killed and injured as a result of automobile
accidents. Because of this, automotive safety design has become a major part of the auto industry.
Safety engineers have concluded that passenger restraints are one safety device that could reduce automobile
fatalities dramatically. Seat belts, shoulder harnesses, and air bags keep passengers from being thrown from the
vehicle or bounce around the vehicle's interior causing injury.
Another category of safety devices are energy absorbing devices. They absorb or cushion the impact of a
collision. Together, these devices can save many lives. This activity will allow you to assume the role of a
safety engineer as you design, install, and test safety devices for a crash vehicle.
Problem:
You are an employee of a major automobile manufacturer in the safety engineering department. You have been
assigned the task of designing and installing safety devices for a new test vehicle. The vehicle must be able to
roll down the test ramp and into an immovable object, (e.g., the wall, a concrete block) while protecting the
passengers (raw eggs) from injury. The vehicle must be realistic to what we have in the real world (think:
we don’t wrap ourselves in bubble wrap each time we get into the car).
Materials:
- test ramp/wheeled chassis
- hot glue guns
- 2 raw eggs (live passengers)
- zip lock bag (body bag)
- assorted recycled materials for constructing crash vehicle and interior safety devices:
- cardboard
- rubber bands
- egg carton bottoms (one for each egg to rest in)
- bubble wrap
- foam, felt
- balloons
- cotton balls
- styrofoam
- craft sticks
- plastic bags
- tissues
- other misc. items supplied by you or teacher SUBJECT TO TEACHER APPROVAL
Procedure:
1. Brainstorm and research possible restraints as well as shock-absorbing additions to your vehicle. Keep in
mind that the goal is to protect the eggs from damage upon the collision. Actual size of egg crash vehicle must
be the following:
length =
12 inches
width =
5 inches
height =
between 2-4 inches (not less than 2 and no more than 4, (eggs are ~ 1.8 inches tall)
2. Draw a scaled model diagram of your egg crash vehicle using the Draw function in Microsoft Word. The
scaled drawing will be exactly ½ size (of the true size) scaled on the page, which means ½ size:
length = 6 inches, width = 2.5 inches, height 1-2 inches, egg ratios = oval height 0.88 and oval width 0.66 on
your scaled drawing in Word. We will spend several days in the computer lab working on scaled drawings and
the drawings will be the engineering model instructions that you follow when building.
2. Apply your solutions to your vehicle by constructing your vehicle and safety devices using the materials.
3. Test your vehicle. In the unlikely event the safety system fails to fully protect the passenger, we will place
the egg into a plastic bag (body bag) before installing it in the vehicle. This will make the clean-up much easier.
Evaluation:
1. The following are required and represent the project point breakdown:
- Egg car creativity/originality: 10 pts
- Egg car workmanship: 60 pts = 30 points Word Draw design, 30 points Quality of Construction
- Egg survival of crash:
Both eggs survive without injury = 30 points
One or both eggs injured (crack in the shell) = 27 points
One egg dies, other egg no injuries or small crack = 24 points
Both eggs die = 21 points
Grand Total Possible Points = 100 pts
2. In addition, winners of each of the following will receive additional extra credit points:
- Most creative (as voted by class) 5 pts
- Best built (as voted by class) 5 pts
Directions for using the Draw function in Microsoft Word
1. Open a new Microsoft Word document, and choose “Page Layout”, then “Orientation” then “Landscape” to
set the page format as landscape.
2. Go to “Insert”, choose “Shapes” and then “New Drawing Canvas” at the very bottom of the menu. This will
open a large framed box where you will draw and label your car. Before you begin drawing your car, you must
stretch the margins on the left and right by pulling the arrows at the top of the tool bar to the farthest left and
right that they will go, followed by stretching left and right box arrows. Then stretch the top and bottom
margins using the left scroll bar. Stretch and pull all the margins to the full size of the page.
3. Click on the top left icon box that has the letter “A” inside it, this is the icon for inserting a text box. Insert a
text box at the very bottom of the drawing canvas. Re-shape the text box size so it is small and at the very
bottom. Inside the text box type your name, class, period # and date.
4. Back at the top menu, click on “insert” and then “shapes”, choose “line”. Draw a quick line and delete it.
This will pull up the draw toolbox so that you can work with it.
5. Step 1: divide your draw box window in half using the line function, dividing the top half and bottom half of
the page by drawing a horizontal line all the way across.
6. Bottom half: this will be the side view of your egg crash vehicle. Start with one line on the bottom = bottom
of vehicle. REMEMBER: all drawings are ½ scale size. To check that your lines are the correct ½ size, once
you draw a line, right click on the line when the arrows appear and choose “format auto shape” from the menu.
Set the size at absolute width = 6 inches. This equals 1/2 the length of the actual car (remember: this is the
length of your car). Leave height of line alone (no formatting).
7. Draw a new line going up for the back of the car, make sure that the height is set at 1 or 2 inches (you need to
choose how high, remember that it means 2 or 4 inches for the real height). Use the “format auto shape”
function to set the scale. Leave the width of the line at 0.
8. Continue working: the front will be the bumper, (height of front bumper is your choice). Make sure to SAVE
as you go in your secure folder. You may also save in Mrs. Chapman’s Tech Ed folder on the shared server
under “Chapman Tech Ed”.
9. To draw the eggs: choose “oval” from the toolbox. The ½ scale size for the egg format is height = 0.88 and
width = 0.66.
10. Continue as described above for the top view of your vehicle in the top half section of the box. Here are all
of the things that your drawing must have: overall outside shape and design including front bumper details,
back, roof, bottom, eggs, steering wheel, seat-backs/seats and any other custom safety devices. For the door,
pick a light color for the line so it will print out in grey and be visibly different from the rest of the car.
11. Labels: everything on the vehicle must be labeled with lines marking the region and leading to text labels.
Use the normal line function to place two-¼ inch lines perpendicular to the line you are labeling (like the back
of the car) spanning the entire distance. Then select a double arrow line and draw it to connect the lines. Insert
a text box to label it with the actual real size of the vehicle. Choose “format text box” by right-clicking and
under “fill color” choose no color, under “line color” choose no color, so the words will float near the arrow and
correspond with the piece you are labeling.
HAVE FUN AND GOOD LUCK!!!