Egg Drop Paper
This quarter in science class, we were assigned an egg drop project. The egg was to be dropped out of a window from three stories up without breaking. We were to collaborate with one other person in this project, and how we designed the material to help the egg’s survival was up to us. In this process, we were to keep Newton’s laws in mind and try to determine how they’d affect the fall. We came up with the general idea of using a shoebox, in which the egg would be placed. We wanted something to create more air resistance to slow the fall, so we used a giant plastic Belk bag to use as a parachute-like device, which we taped to the box. Since the impact on the ground could be strong once the box fell due to gravity, we decided to wrap the egg in a kitchen towel and use a rubber band to secure it so that it would soften the fall for the egg. This would also keep it from moving around too much. Finally, we taped the box closed so the lid wouldn’t come flying off in the middle of the fall, hoped for the best, and threw it out the window.
Fortunately, the egg survived the fall! The box was very light and did not have much mass. If it did have more mass, then it still would have fallen at the same speed. However, objects with more mass accelerate faster so the box would have had more of an impact with the ground below. Gravitational force obviously made the box fall. Air resistance (which as stated previously, the parachute affected the most) would make it accelerate slower and therefore make it fall slower as well. The potential energy was converted into kinetic energy once the egg began to fall out the window. If it were higher, than the impact with the ground would’ve been stronger and perhaps the egg wouldn’t have fared as well as it did for this experiment.