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Need help with egg drop assignment

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[[Totoro]]
Posts: 84 - Karma: 10

So heres the deal, we get 50 straws and one meter of masking tape. It will be dropped from a two story window. What would be the best way to do this?

And me and my partner realized that teh teacher never said we couldn't manipulate the straws with flame...

thanks in advance,

jason

Oct 26 2007 12:49PM
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Nicholas.
Posts: 10905 - Karma: 60

i think you can wrap the egg in mass tape and then have a bunch of straws sticking out so it looks like a big spiky ball thing, when it hits the straws should end out and absorb most of the fall. it worked for me but we only had to drop it from like 8 feet.

Oct 26 2007 12:56PM
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eheath
Posts: 61603 - Karma: 123,089
Make a cage obviously.
Oct 26 2007 12:56PM
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[[Totoro]]
Posts: 84 - Karma: 10
I don't know if that would work from 30ish feet. That is a good idea, combined with a cage of sorts.
Oct 26 2007 12:59PM
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Nicholas.
Posts: 10905 - Karma: 60
yeah you would need to combine some straws to make the spikes longer and have it absorb farther before the egg hit the ground, and make sure you space the straws out enough if you do it so that they sprawl out and dont hit hard and break the egg.
Oct 26 2007 1:07PM
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slashquatch
Posts: 874 - Karma: 17
three words. hard boiled egg. its fool proof
Oct 26 2007 1:31PM
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kepler.
Posts: 8761 - Karma: 139
usually an intelligent teacher will say you can't do that. but sometimes they forget that, then you're golden
Oct 26 2007 1:43PM
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SkierX
Posts: 16253 - Karma: 538
Haha, when we did this similar assignment in 8th grade they made us smash the eggs after the assignment.

I'd say your best bet is to cut the straws into small sections, and make a thick "bumper" layer. They would flex and absorb, and enough layers would greate a spring like design.
Oct 26 2007 1:44PM
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Rooddss
Posts: 1420 - Karma: 14
haha the other physics class is doing the egg drop off the top of the school
Oct 26 2007 2:07PM
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J.D.
Posts: 21362 - Karma: 5,142
How we did it was create a net for the egg drop with tape. But you have to hit the net. 30 feet is a long way down.
Oct 26 2007 2:42PM
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*DrewT*
Posts: 7768 - Karma: 481
Seriously the best way to do it would be to simply wrap the egg in a couple layers of tape, and do layers of straws wrapped around the egg held on with tape.  Make sure the eggs in there tight so it won't move around.  Just make sure the straws are like an extension of the egg itself so the egg isn't bouncing around at all within the straws
Oct 26 2007 3:15PM
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user098123
Posts: 6072 - Karma: 18
Look up Impulse. What you can get from Impulse is the average force. The average force is what breaks the egg. If you have the egg fall and hit the ground, it's average Force will be very large, it will have a large force spread out over a small amount of time. However, if you have the force spread out over a very long amount of time, then the average force will be small. If the average force on the egg is less than that required to break it's shell, it won't break.

To make a long average force, you need a long collision. For example, in a car, they are designed to accordion as the front end is crushed, that way it crushes in a /\/\/\/\ pattern, and it takes longer to crush. This makes the average force less, meaning less force experienced by you, and less injury caused. You want to do something similar with your egg. The longer you can spread out the 'slowing down' of the egg, the less the force and less chance it will have of breaking.

As for your design, that's up to you. I'm not an engineering major.
Oct 26 2007 3:23PM
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Scolson
Posts: 2904 - Karma: 92
Is this high school?

I remember in 4th grade wee did an egg drop haha.  It was from maybe 50 ft? and we could do whatever we wated escept parachutes and hard boiling I believe.  It was fun.
Oct 26 2007 3:47PM
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SkierX
Posts: 16253 - Karma: 538
We did it in 8th grade from the 3rd floor onto the parking lot below.

We had to design a container using cardboard that would keep it from breaking, and we had to smash the eggs afterwards to prove it wasn't hard-boiled.
Oct 26 2007 3:55PM
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Tasche
Posts: 5422 - Karma: 99
2 approaches

1) Try to plan for every possible impact angle with a cage or spikes.

2) Try to control the trajectory so only the reinforced area hits. Like an arrow or a parachute.

Anyway as far as geometry goes spheres and interlocking geometric shapes are good.

There is one more kind of out of the box way I just thought of. Make a really long plastic leash out of vertically cut straws and lower that fucker to the ground or wind it up and let it spin down. Just thinking.
Oct 26 2007 4:06PM
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Skipig25
Posts: 10729 - Karma: 256
tape the straws together and lower your egg to the ground
Oct 26 2007 4:10PM
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uni-corn
Posts: 13846 - Karma: 651
solid
Oct 26 2007 4:13PM
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TheQuailman
Posts: 7382 - Karma: 147
If you can make  parachute with tape and straws your golden.  If not go with a spherical -like cage
Oct 26 2007 4:17PM
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moonofendor
Posts: 1484 - Karma: 14
me and pelenclerk where at this math thing over summer and we had a 4 story egg drop. we just tied our egg to some string and lowered it down. it was epic cuz all these asians were all like u cheated.

one chemical hydrochloric acid.
get rid of the shell with the acid.
Oct 26 2007 4:19PM
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R-Bertsch
Posts: 4719 - Karma: 20
i did this last year and my partner and i were the only ones to make it 35 feet in our physics class, we made a propeller on top, at an angle so it slows the falling of the egg by spinning, it like the helicopter things that fall off trees, it worked like a charm, heres a very crude picture that i drew with my laptop finger pad, thats why its so shity, our requirements were the same as yours tho.

Egg fuck
Oct 26 2007 4:23PM
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DANETRON
Posts: 6671 - Karma: 137
smash the egg into the ground and tell your teacher to fuck off
Oct 26 2007 4:26PM
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quixotic
Posts: 6937 - Karma: 2,978
make like a log cabin type square with the straws in layers (cut the straws so its more efficient).  the once it is multiple layers thick make a mat of tape across it for the egg to sit on.  then use the rest of the tape to hold the egg down.  the hollow square shape of straws will act like a spring and the mat of tape like a trampoline mat.  hope you use my winning idea... ha
Oct 26 2007 4:28PM
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