Egg Drop Experiment

Purpose:

  • To design and construct investigations involving the motion of objects and report the results in a variety of ways.
  • To investigate Newton’s Law’s of Motion and Gravitation. Experimentally test inertia and gravitational acceleration.
  • To construct a device that will enable you to drop an egg (inside the device) from a high distance onto a hard surface without breaking the egg.

Materials provided for the design of your Egg drop Product

10 Popsicle sticks

10 paper clips

5 soda straws

5 rubber bands

1.5 meters of yarn

10 cotton balls

1 plastic sandwich bag (size small)

1 bottle of glue

2 pieces of computer paper

Guidelines & limitations:

  1. You will only be able to use the material provided. Your goal is to build an egg drop product that uses the least amount of material.
  2. Egg drops will take place from the football stadium. There will be several drops from various heights. Your egg must survive lower heights to progress to the highest! Only those who survive (not leaking) the smaller drops may proceed to the higher levels.

* A cracked egg is defined as one that is visibly leaking its contents (did not survive). Hairline fractures are not considered cracks and may go on to a higher level.

  1. Egg must be able to come in and out of product easily. After each drop you must be able to quickly open the container to show your egg. The container must be constructed with a hatch or a door so that the egg can be inserted or withdrawn quickly. The contestant will be required to remove the egg from the container to show the teacher that it did not break.
  2. Nothing may be glued, taped or attached to egg.

Think about these questions while designing your Egg Drop Product:

Describe your egg drop apparatus and at least 3 design features you implemented in order to try to help your egg survive.

Draw your design.

How does your design cut back on building material?

What are the forces acting on the egg as it falls?

How can you control the forces that cause the egg to break?

POST-EXPERIMENT ANALYSIS

  1. Calculate your egg’s final velocity after each height.

Drop / Drop Height (m) / Time of drop (s) / Show work v = d/t / Velocity of Egg (m/s)
1
2
3
4
  1. Did your egg survive? What do you think was the 1 biggest design factor in the survival or destruction of your egg?
  1. Was it the material, the amount of it, or its compression factor that was the key?
  1. What are the common characteristics of the materials that protected some eggs?
  1. Did layering of materials play a role in protection?
  1. What about your design made the egg break? Not break?
  1. If you could change 1 feature of your design, what would it be and why?

Document your product’s design.

With your partner please tell the "process story" of your egg drop machine, from conception to final product. You will construct a photo story using movie maker or IMovie. (50 points)

Points Possible / Your Score
You must use exactly six pictures You may take your own pictures with your personal camera however be sure you can import these images into Movie Maker or IMovie.
Some ideas for the types of photos you can use:
i) pictures of the design on paper (drawing)
ii) pictures of the construction
iii) pictures of your design in flight
iv) pictures of your velocity calculations
v) pictures of your failed components
vi) pictures of redesign (drawing or new construction) / 5 pts. For each photo/illustration
All of the photos must include captions. The captions should be proofread and either explains what is going on in the photo or what is going on in between photos. The captions only should be 1-3 sentences. / 3 pts. For each caption
50 pts.

Writing the Lab Report

Each student will complete a one page, double spaced reflection. Your lab report should address the following areas

PointsPossible / Your Score
Purpose
The purpose of the lab is clearly stated. / 5 pts.
What design element worked the best?
What forces acted on the egg/structure and allowed this design element to perform its purpose? / 5 pts.
What design element didn’t work?
What forces were acting on the egg/structure that made the design not work or fail?
How could it be changed or adapted? / 5 pts.
Research and Application
Research and discuss materials that we use every day that protect “precious cargo”. Look at packaged items at home and research current advances in packaging technology.
Apply your new knowledge about forces on falling objects and packaging materials. Discuss a design element of those materials. (For example: Christmas ornaments are packaged for sale so that if they fall off the shelf while displayed they are likely not to break.)
What about the package design allows the product to remain intact? Where else do you see this design element being used? / 15 pts.
Redesign
Now that you have reflected on current packaging designs what would youredesign?
What new materials would you incorporate? Why?
What materials would you abandon? Why? / 5 pts.
Redesign Illustrated
Please attach either a hand drawn illustration or create your new design using a computer program of your choice (drawing tools in Word, Paint, or other program. / 10 pts.
Quality of Writing- Response Free of grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors. The style of writing facilitates communication. / 5 pts.
50 pts.