Egg Drop Ideas?

[crimson5pheonix]

I remember doing this but with MUCH tighter rules. You were given
1 a4 sheet of paper
6 drinking straws
1 meter of sticky tape
1 egg.

The trick was to make a cone using the paper and straws but with a small hole in the bottom. You then put the egg in there so it's tip is pointing out. Drop.

The game was a way of explaining how force distributes, a chicken egg is shaped so that when the chicken lays it it can drop on to the tip without breaking. The trick is building something that ENSURES that it will land directly on the tip.

I used the word tip a record breaking number of times there I think

That just reminds me for some reason of an advanced class I took in Elementary where one of the kids stood an egg on it's smaller tip explaining it has to do with the position of the moon and a very steady hand. I came in the next day and did it by applying enough pressure to slightly crack it and make a flat surface. They didn't know that part and I got away with looking far more skilled than I actually was.

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

Oooooooooh... Egg Drop!! We used to get the kids at work to do these of an evening. Have to say, the parachute designs didn't tend to work so well, especially over such a little height...

One that DID usually work was when the egg was packed fairly loosely in a container, with loads of shock-absorbing materials. Get a box/bag that matches the diameter, and a load of balloons/latex gloves/similar. Inflate the balloons or gloves, and pack the box with them, with the egg tucked away in the middle. Simple, yet effective. Also, you can get your sister to decorate the outside of the box in a suitably awesome manner!!

 

[Calatar]

You could also do a parachute with weighed prongs on the bottom, and cushions between the egg and the prongs. Think of a lunar lander with a parachute.

I tried this general design once, but the restrictions were a lot more dire: only toothpicks and glue allowed. Without a weight to orient the "lander" though, the meshed toothpick shock-absorbers didn't have the chance to absorb the blow, and it simply landed on its side, leading to cracked-egg syndrome of course. Weaker side shock absorbers couldn't handle the full load.
Actually, nobody's design succeeded. Toothpicks are terrible shock absorbers, and there's no way to properly orient such a structure without weights or MASSIVE quantities of toothpicks.

More OT: Essentially anything soft is your friend. Fluffy things which contain lots of air, such as popcorn, packing peanuts and bubble wrap as mentioned above are your friends, but keep in mind you may need a lot of it.
The goal is to decrease the amount of acceleration the egg experiences when it hits the ground, and that means soft. A pringles can or other similar edged device to contain the egg on its fluffy pillow of material is also a good idea, because the force of impact will by translated into the cardboard edges. Failure to weight properly will mean disaster.
Keep in mind as well that the structurally strongest part of the egg is the pointy bit, so you'll want to have that facing down in your final design.

 

[Dr Ampersand]

I'd go for the car suspension idea combined with fins and a parachute(not the type with a hard to make dome, more of just lots of hanging bits for lots of drag).

 

[Squiggles]

Get a really big party balloon, put the egg inside (cut off enough of the end that you can squeeze it through and still tie it up.) fill it up with water (like a LOT of water) and then duct tape the outside... the water should act like a shock absorber and the duct tape will prevent an explosion of the surrounding rubber.

well at least its imaginative

 

[Hawgh]

bubble wrap! or suspension in a thick liquid of some sort.

 

[NghtmaresXNoVaKaiNe]

Sounds to me like someone needs a Railgun...perhaps a flamethrower.

 

[arsenicCatnip]

For some reason, the cores of toilet paper rolls work very well as cushion. That was what I used in elementary school, and it worked well. Of course, we were dropping the eggs off a one-story building.

 

[lapan]

That just reminds me for some reason of an advanced class I took in Elementary where one of the kids stood an egg on it's smaller tip explaining it has to do with the position of the moon and a very steady hand. I came in the next day and did it by applying enough pressure to slightly crack it and make a flat surface. They didn't know that part and I got away with looking far more skilled than I actually was.

Is it you, Columbus?

 

[Wintermoot]

styrofoam padded with fluff or bubble plastic

 

[DanDanikov]

I wonder if you could mount the egg between four circular rails-if it were lightly held at a 3 or 9 o'clock position (by something it could break free from without breaking the egg) and guaranteed to land 6 o'clock position first, wouldn't the egg just accelerate and spin around the track?

 

[crimson5pheonix]

That just reminds me for some reason of an advanced class I took in Elementary where one of the kids stood an egg on it's smaller tip explaining it has to do with the position of the moon and a very steady hand. I came in the next day and did it by applying enough pressure to slightly crack it and make a flat surface. They didn't know that part and I got away with looking far more skilled than I actually was.

Is it you, Columbus?

It is where I got the idea. It was also a good laugh for me.