Egg Drop

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate May 2001

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The objective of our project was to design and build a contraption that would secure an egg from breaking upon impact from a second story window, and the contraption wieghing as least as possible while falling the fastest. We wanted to design something that would provide a lot of cushioning directly to the egg, and also provide extra cushioning to weaken the impact. After testing and submitting a design of just bubble wrap around the egg we found out that it will not be allowed. Due to this we had to make changes in order to gain originality pionts and add to the creativity. After pondering for a few minutes we came up with the idea of putting the egg in a container of some material with cushioning, and then wrap the container in bubble wrap. This suttle change was enough to gain originality points and led us to the building stage.

During the building process we were strapped for materials, until we made a much needed trip to the store. At the house we tried to use a plastic ball and water to secure the egg before wrapping it in the bubble wrap. After failure we tried other materials but they never made the testing stage dues to elimination. We went to ace hardware to look for materials that would hold the egg securely without breaking it. After searching for a while and scratching out ideas we found a two inch PVC pipe along with two one and a half inch test plugs that are water tight. At this point we still had the water idea to hold the egg inside the tubing. To keep the wieght down we used cotton balls inside the tubing to keep the egg from coming in direct contact with the hard...