egg drop

[~queenie~]

my ds needs to come up with an ida to drop an egg from a second story window.. any one ever had a successful drop where the egg does not crack??

any ideas would be great!!

 

[~queenie~]

bumping

 

[tnkbl]

This was a challenge at the school I teach at one year for the upper grades in secince. It was neat to see all the things that the kids wrapped the eggs in to keep them safe.
Does it have to be a raw egg or what?
If it can be any kind of egg you can soak an hard boiled egg in vinegar and it will turn like rubber and then wrap it up in egg crate like you put on a bed and duct tape.
Most of the eggs that the kids used were wrapped in something and they tried different materials to see what worked best beforehand.
I am not sure if they used raw eggs or what.
Here is how to make the egg like rubber...
Where's the shell? - an experiment in chemical reactions and osmosis.
Materials:

1 small jar or glass
1 raw egg
vinegar
Procedure:

Place the raw egg into a small jar. Pour enough vinegar over the egg until it is completely covered. Watch the egg for several minutes. You will notice that the shell on the egg appears to bubble. After three days, remove the egg from the jar or glass. Gently remove the shell while you rinse it under cool water. If the shell does not come off completely, return the egg to the jar or glass. covers the entire egg, and try to rinse the egg the next day. Examine the egg and have the students write their observations. Bubbles will immediately form on the surface of the egg and will increase in number over time. The bubbles are carbon dioxide gas. After 24 hours the shell is gone. The membrane of the egg remains. The chemical name of vinegar is acetic acid and egg shells are made up of calcium carbonate. There is a chemical reaction between the vinegar and the shell.

Next, fill a jar with corn syrup. Place the egg in the syrup. It will probably float. Observe the egg ever few hours and notice the changes. Keep the egg in the syrup for three days. Remove the egg and rinse it under cool water. Examine the egg and have the students write their observations.

Next, place the egg in a jar of water. Keep the egg in the water for three days. Remove the egg. Have the students examine the egg and record their observations.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

 

[LucyStorm]

When my son did this it had to be raw egg, and yes we were successful.

We wrapped the egg in unfolded cotton balls, bubble wrap, and then egg crate material. I can't remember if we put it in a small box, or just taped the egg crate material shut. But the egg didn't break.

Now you could probably get some of that viscous foam, or use those gel inserts for shoes....

 

[~queenie~]

my son wants to place it is some kind of cup and have a balloon slow it down!!

 

[pumba]

our grandson did one a few months ago and he did a jello (with less water) and put the egg in the middle of it before it solidified and got a good base around it and then put it in some styrofoam and hot glued it together.....worked like a charm and it did not break from the roof of the school.....also a two story bld

 

[CarolG]

DS did this last semester in his physics class. They used raw eggs, supplied by the teacher so no one could sneak in a hard-boiled ringer.

DS used a styrofoam ball, either 4 or 6 inches. He cut it in half and hollowed out some of the styrofoam in the center. Then he stuffed both halves with cotton balls. He enclosed the egg in a ziploc bag, placed it in the center of the cotton, and then closed the ball with tape (duct tape or electrical tape, I think). He cut a couple of plastic straws into short pieces and stuck them into the exterior of the ball.

His class dropped their egg carriers from about 25 feet up onto an asphalt parking lot. His egg came through intact. They had to do two drops with the same carrier, and he had a little scare on the second one - the tape came loose and the egg rolled out, but didn't break, fortunately.

He took digital pictures of his assembly and test drops, including some designs that failed miserably - messy! He included those in the report that he had to turn in.

His older brother had the same teacher and same project four years ago. I seem to recall someone used a round loaf of bread with a hollow in the center for the egg.

Good luck!

 

[~queenie~]

thanks for the ideas

 

[MerryPoppins]

DD did this project a couple of years ago. Hers had to be an unaltered raw egg and it had to be in a box. Massive points would be taken off if it made a big mess, so jello and such were out.

She took styrofoam that fit the box and hollowed it out. Then she fit rubber bands going both ways around the stryrofoam in slots she cut. She baggied the egg and wrapped it in bubble wrap, then put it in the rubberband suspension "seat belts". She put more packing around the edges. Even as carefully as she packed it, it still had too much of a jar at impact. It failed miserably.

Sounds to me like cotton works better than bubble wrap. Good luck.

 

[MAKmom]

If you put an egg in a lime green Croc & drop it 2 storys it will not break.

 

[twinklebug]

My school had the physics teachers "drop" (more like throw the items at the ground as hard as possible) the egg-creations off the top of the gym. Much higher than 2 stories. The teachers check the egg by cracking it open at the end to be sure it wasn't tampered with.

My brother took a giant can of crisco and burried his egg in the middle, then taped the whole can up with duct tape. It worked... & was too easy. The next year cans of Crisco, PB & other similar substances were illegal.

Lets just say my creation went a little overboard with safety mechanisms. It worked, but was severe over-kill. (a rocket made of a cardboard tube & foam fins, filled with a stocking, rice krispies, clay... you get the pic)

 

[kpm76]

I won the egg drop many years ago when I was in Jr. High. It had to be a raw egg. I put it in a cozie (one of those things you put a beer or can of soda in). I think I put cotton balls all around and under the egg to fill the space, then I wrapped as many elastics as I could get around the thing. It bounced and never broke!

 

[U2_rocks]

I did this as a team building excercise, and we were given a bunch of materials to work with and a raw egg. I believe we made a parachute of some sort, and our egg survived. Unfortunately this was 11 years ago and I don't remember what we made it with!!

 

[icebrat001]

my ds needs to come up with an ida to drop an egg from a second story window.. any one ever had a successful drop where the egg does not crack??

any ideas would be great!!

Oh I did this for physics many years ago, it was fun. We did it a lot.

You can blow up like 4 or 6 ballons (not all the way), but the egg in the middle and it won't crack.

You can also make a mini parachute.

We did both of these from a 6 story building.

 

[cherylp3]

From another thread
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=904870&page=451&pp=15

Posted by ohanafamily:
I Would say pack it in styrofoam.

(get a piece of styrofoam the size of the container. cut it down the middle, and hollow out a section in the center to fit the egg snugly. if the pressure on the shell is spread evenly the egg can take a lot, so it is important that the egg is secure. I think this will work, but I would test it first...

I googled it and found this link with some more insight.....

http://users.adelphia.net/~jberger5/eggdrop.html

 

[Quasi123]

Both my DD had to do this in fifth grade. They both took a raw egg, wrapped it in a ton of bubble wrap, placed in it a small box and were the only ones not to have their egg break.

 

[twinklebug]

From another thread
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=904870&page=451&pp=15I think this will work, but I would test it first...

Be careful when testing. Ever wonder why they say you need to replace a helmet after an accident even if all looks fine with it?

In my class almost everyone passed the egg-drop, but one who failed miserably, the kid who ranked #3 in our graduating class, had failed to realize that his egg-creation had been weakened by multiple tests. Before the drop he had been boasting about how his would be the only one to survive as it worked perfectly 3x off the roof of his house down to his driveway. I wonder if that failing grade kept him from being #1?

Needless to say, he took the failure extreamly hard.

 

[~queenie~]

Be careful when testing. Ever wonder why they say you need to replace a helmet after an accident even if all looks fine with it?

the teacher will be suppling the eggs the day of the drop.. so we don't have that worry

 

[twinklebug]

the teacher will be suppling the eggs the day of the drop.. so we don't have that worry

The egg wasn't the problem... or... there's a possibility that maybe it was (as he claimed he used a bum egg)

My belief was the structure had been weakened so on the 4th drop he had scrambled egg to show for all his hard work. He had used a can lined with padding and spider-like legs attached with springs to absorb the shock. The springs had been stretched too far/too often and "softned"

Same thing will happen with foam and other materials. Once used as intended they break down and will never perform up to par.

 

[Talking Hands]

Pack it in a hollowed out Nerf football and then put the nerf material back around it and tape with duct tape. Daughter did this is the summer between 6 and 7th grade and dropped it from the fourth floor of the building. Didn't break.