Egg Drop Project

This egg drop experiment forced me to think and develop a design that I felt confident with. I developed several models and tested them numerous times, but could not settle on one. Eventually, I was able to put an addition onto one of my designs which gave me confidence in its ability to protect that precious egg. I will explain why my design worked so well in respect to impulse, air resistance, and stability. First, I will discuss impulse. Impulse is a force acting briefly on a body and producing a finite change of momentum. My design experienced this when it hit the ground. It does not matter how long force is on the object, it causes the same acceleration. To account for this, I made sure that my egg was suspended above the ground a decent distance. My design had several different legs that would prevent most of the force of hitting the ground from reaching the egg. These legs absorbed the forces and since they ran diagonally across the egg, the force was never pushed directly at the egg, but it ran past the egg. I also added a second pyramid underneath my egg. This was in case the legs could not handle the force of landing and decided to bend. This would cause the egg, although still nestled safely in it’s compartment, to hit the ground and break. The pyramid was used to absorb the remain amounts of force that the legs failed to.
The impulse was large, but with these legs and extra pyramid to absorb this force, the egg was fine in the end. Second, I will discuss air resistance.
My model was not designed to take advantage of air resistance, but it still played a part in keeping my egg safe. I had many straws sticking out in different directions. These straws were relatively thick and as my model traveled down, it was combated by air resistance. This air resistance was working in the opposite direction that it was falling in an attempt to stop it from falling. My model’s surface area was not especially large so air resistance did not play as large of a role as it would have on Thomas’ design. He had a large surface area which contributed greatly to preserving his
egg. Finally, I will discuss stability. In order to keep my model stable, I added the most weight to the bottom. I had the longest legs and the extra pyramid situated on the bottom to ensure that it should not flip. The lower the center of gravity, the more stable my model would be. If my center of gravity was at the top of my model, it would have flipped over to compensate for being top-heavy. Gravity was acting on my model as a whole, but it was also acting on each straw individually along with the egg. During D-Day, I saw some people with models where the egg was placed at the very top. Each time, these models flipped over because the center of gravity was not situated correctly. This egg drop experiment was much more work than I initially expected. I was able to stop the impulse of hitting the ground from breaking my egg through length of straws and a pyramid situated below my egg. Air resistance did not play as much of a role in my design, but it was still present and did cause air drag. By situating my model’s center of gravity near the bottom, I was able to control it from tipping and this kept it stable. Overall, this was a fun and challenging task and I now appreciate what Seth was able to do much more than I did before.