Science Smarts: Egg drop design

By PATTY ROOKS on April 8, 2022.

With Spring Break just a week away, I thought it would be best to continue on with my egg theme. As the holidays approach, I know I will have to be bringing quite a few eggs home (not just to eat, but experiment with too, of course). This has me thinking about how best to protect an egg. I want all of you to put your thinking hats on and try this experiment with me. Send me a note to let me know your results as well. Let’s get started!

Remember to ask an adult before doing this experiment.

Objective: Can you design a system that will protect an egg from a fall? Use items from around the house to build something that will prevent eggs smashing all over the ground. Think reduce, reuse and recycle.

Your goal is simple, design and build a system that will protect an egg from a one-metre drop. Eggs that smash or crack fail the test while eggs that survive without a scratch pass!

For your testing phase at home, you will need:

• Eggs

• Paper towels

• A location to drop your egg from

Build your egg protectors from resources such as:

• Plastic straws

• Popsicle sticks

• Tape

• Recycled paper

• Glue

• Plastic bags

• Boxes

• Used material

• Plastic containers

Helpful Hints:

You need to create something that can absorb the energy the egg gathers as it accelerates towards the ground. As we all know from experience, a hard surface will crack the egg so you have to think carefully about how you can protect it. Something that will cushion the egg at the end of its fall is a good place to start. You want the egg to decelerate slowly so it doesn’t crack or smash all over the ground. You’ll need to run a few trials so have some eggs ready as test subjects, those that don’t survive will at least be comforted knowing they were smashed for a good scientific cause, and if not, you can at least have scrambled eggs for dinner, right?

Keep an eye on our social media as we will officially kick off our 30th anniversary celebrations on April 13! We cannot wait to have you take part.

Patty Rooks, Senior Scientific Consultant PRAXIS, “Connecting Science To The Community”. Contact Praxis at praxis@praxismh.ca, http://www.praxismh.ca, Tweet or follow us @PraxisMedHat, or friend us on Facebook. Address: #12 826 11 Street S. E., Medicine Hat, Alberta, T1A 1T7 Phone: 403.527.5365, email: praxis@praxismh.ca.

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