Egg Drop Challenge Help Needed

[Johnny Rockets]

So my daughter needs to construct something to protect an egg from breaking on a 2 story drop. 

 

Materials:

 

Drinking Straws 

Toothpicks

Rubber Bands

Twine

Glue

Pipe Cleaners

 

 

- Must be able to get into the container within one minute.

 

- No hard boiled or frozen eggs

 

 - Eggs cannot be completely covered in glue. 

 

So I am thinking I need to make the container out of the straws and somehow use rubber bands to secure the egg inside it to "give" when it hits.

 

Any ideas?

 

 

 

[Murph]

type in "egg drop straws" in youtube. There are some videos that may give you some hints.

[Happy Panther]

I would make a cone of of the straws- the shape of a toilet paper roll. The rubber bands are then strewn through the straws making a net upon which the egg rests. Need a net both top and bottom. One one side if the cone make a nose that will give while on the other add wings so you can drop in nose down and it will not flop over.

[Happy Panther]

Somebody did something similar. 

 

[PandaPancake]

You want something like this to spread the force evenly.

 

 

Last time I had to do this it was from the sixth floor and we determined that an egg by itself would take 6 meters before traveling 30 m/s.

[chknwing]

they did it on an episode of full house using a twinkie I believe.

[Doyle]

I thought this thread would be about a soup eating contest.

[Happy Panther]

When we did this in science class one dude froze it in a block of water. Obviously didn't work.

[sharkkiller]

Do it like Jamie on mythbusters, and have 20 feet of string. Build a stupid little rig that will handle a 1 foot drop, then lower it down and drop it from one foot off the ground.

[Johnny Rockets]

Do it like Jamie on mythbusters, and have 20 feet of string. Build a stupid little rig that will handle a 1 foot drop, then lower it down and drop it from one foot off the ground.

 

Interesting... not sure if my daughter will be the one dropping it or the teacher.

 

The instructions say that the structure and packaging must protect the egg when dropped from a two-story height.  I wonder if they would consider that I violation of the rules? 

[TimTom]

How big can the toothpick be?  Just jam a 20ft long tapered toothpick in the vertical axis bottom of the egg, glue that bitch up so it isn't broken and then "drop" it.  Make sure the toothpick is sharp so it sticks in the ground but also make sure it's thick in the middle so it doesn't tip over.  It'll basically be a flagpole with an egg on the top. 

 

If the egg never truly touches the ground with any other contraption it didn't survive the drop you can argue.  So I say, bend those rules.  Argue that the device as a whole did make it "down."  Oh, and bring a mic to drop too after you're done explaining this.

 

Be prepared for either an A or an F, there is no middle ground with this.

[TimTom]

Interesting... not sure if my daughter will be the one dropping it or the teacher.

 

The instructions say that the structure and packaging must protect the egg when dropped from a two-story height.  I wonder if they would consider that I violation of the rules? 

 

damn while i was replying to the thread you responded and in so doing crushed my dreams

[Johnny Rockets]

How big can the toothpick be?  Just jam a 20ft long tapered toothpick in the vertical axis bottom of the egg, glue that bitch up so it isn't broken and then "drop" it.  Make sure the toothpick is sharp so it sticks in the ground but also make sure it's thick in the middle so it doesn't tip over.  It'll basically be a flagpole with an egg on the top. 

 

If the egg never truly touches the ground with any other contraption it didn't survive the drop you can argue.  So I say, bend those rules.  Argue that the device as a whole did make it "down."  Oh, and bring a mic to drop too after you're done explaining this.

 

Be prepared for either an A or an F, there is no middle ground with this.

 

 

Lol...that is not a bad idea. She is only 10 and in the fifth grade though so I am not sure I want "lawyer up" so to speak if she gets disqualified. 

 

I'm not even sure she gets graded on this. Supposedly she wins a prize if it doesn't break. With school budgets nowadays, it's probably a coupon for a free small Frosty on her next visit to a participating Wendy's restaurant. 

[TimTom]

Lol...that is not a bad idea. She is only 10 and in the fifth grade though so I am not sure I want "lawyer up" so to speak if she gets disqualified. 

 

I'm not even sure she gets graded on this. Supposedly she wins a prize if it doesn't break. With school budgets nowadays, it's probably a coupon for a free small Frosty on her next visit to a participating Wendy's restaurant. 

 

Yea, my suggestion was not so serious, more just poking fun at this experiment that I too had to attempt when I was a kid (I think I used a bed of cotton balls and it broke IIRC).  For the record, I don't want to offer this clearly bad advice and forever alter your daughter's life-path toward HS and college because of a bad prank pulled in elementary school and influenced by a Huddler.  LOL.