EGG DROP

Each pair of students will make a structure of straws and tape supplied on site, to hold a raw egg. The structure with the egg will be dropped from a fixed height. Team size: 2 students Approximate time: 2 hours Each pair of students will be provided 30 non-flexible straws and one raw egg. Each pair will have access to scissors and tape Students will have 2 approximately 2 hours to research, plan and construct a structure to cushion the egg and prevent it from cracking or breaking. They will have to drop the structure from a height of 2 3 meters onto a ground target/ No tape may be attached to the egg. There will only be ONE drop per team from the prescribed height. Plumb lines will not be provided during the competition. Teams whose egg is unbroken will be ranked by their Course of studies. The team who manages the most eggs unbroken after the drop will be declared the winner. Winning team will receive a prize from their respective lecturer. Note: If the student breaks the egg during construction, they will be given a second egg. If the second egg breaks before the final competitive drop, they will be disqualified from the competition.

F*dt=m*dv where F is the magnitude of the applied force, dt is the time interval over which the force is being applied, m is the mass of the object feeling the force and dv is the change in velocity. When the egg is dropped from some height h the gravitational potential energy of the egg [GPE=m*g*h] is converted into kinetic energy [KE=1/2*m*v^2]. As the egg collides with the ground all of this kinetic energy has to go somewhere; energy must be conserved. Your goal is to direct this energy to a place where it will NOT be used the break the egg! That means that you need to build a structure around the egg that will absorb the kinetic energy of the falling egg in some way. The best way to achieve this is to use the kinetic energy to do work on the structure rather than to do work on the egg. The more energy dissipated in doing work on the structure is energy unavailable to break the egg! To do this you want to build a structure that undergoes "controlled crushability" In other words the structure collapses in a controlled manner such that it absorbs energy while simultaneously distributing the remaining energy to the egg as uniformly as possible. While the egg is falling the only forces acting on it will be the gravitational force downward and the frictional force upward Finally, the work done on the egg+structure will be equal to the kinetic energy of the egg+structure as they come into contact with the ground.