12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
(OP)
The twins (7 years old) have chosen their design for the school's egg-drop problem: Drop an egg 12 feet. Don't break the egg. Use anything you want. Max "envelope" size is 7x7x7. Egg must be inside a sealed sandwich-style plastic bag when dropped (This prevents eggs leakage.) Other than that?
Pretty much anything goes.
So nbr 2 twin wants to use "BIG bubble wrap. Lots of tape. Red tape. Big, thick red tape. Really, really wide super-strong red tape." OK - We'll see how that goes. (Not sure what the "red" part of the "Big Red Tape" is going to do, but "Hey! He's the customer." Fastenal does have 2 inch wide red duct tape.)
Nbr 1 twin wants to use "Fluffy cotton, AND Big bubble wrap, and yellow tape." (Big bubble wrap must be a 7-year old male thing, I guess. Can't use the wimpy little bubble warp. Obviously, yellow tape is going to be better than red tape. No spec's on the width of the yellow tape though? )
But.
How would you do it? I'm wondering if dipping the original "raw egg" in a polymer or epoxy would help strengthen the egg itself - but without adding mass or much thickness. Then wrapping in the bubble wrap, then a frangible nested pair of outside boxes - each cardboard box only loosely taped together to allow the cardboard to flex.
Pretty much anything goes.
So nbr 2 twin wants to use "BIG bubble wrap. Lots of tape. Red tape. Big, thick red tape. Really, really wide super-strong red tape." OK - We'll see how that goes. (Not sure what the "red" part of the "Big Red Tape" is going to do, but "Hey! He's the customer." Fastenal does have 2 inch wide red duct tape.)
Nbr 1 twin wants to use "Fluffy cotton, AND Big bubble wrap, and yellow tape." (Big bubble wrap must be a 7-year old male thing, I guess. Can't use the wimpy little bubble warp. Obviously, yellow tape is going to be better than red tape. No spec's on the width of the yellow tape though? )
But.
How would you do it? I'm wondering if dipping the original "raw egg" in a polymer or epoxy would help strengthen the egg itself - but without adding mass or much thickness. Then wrapping in the bubble wrap, then a frangible nested pair of outside boxes - each cardboard box only loosely taped together to allow the cardboard to flex.





RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
What about a parachute or something that will increase aerodynamic drag? Reducing the delta-V is certainly an approach to reduce the impact shock, particularly since total kinetic energy is proportional to V^2
TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
I'd use a finned paper towel tube so it would hit long-end. Then deaccel the egg for the tube length using something that gives but breaks in the process. Perhaps 200 cross-tube toothpicks.
Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
I still have that Easter basket I dropped the egg in - gave it to my daughter to use to collect Easter eggs.
Air is a great cushion.
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
2. Get a looooooooooooooong roll of red duct tape...
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
Get a large plastic jug - one with a mouth big enough for the egg to pass through.
Fill jug with jello, lower the egg into the jello & suspend in the middle of the jug.
Tying the string around the egg might be tricky... maybe tie a basket...
After the jello cures, top off the jug with water and close the cap with no air.
Tape around the jug several times (equatorial and polar wraps, overlapping) with the red tape (not the yellow tape, everyone knows the yellow tape doesn't stand a chance).
Now cover that in bubble wrap the way the kids want to, and heave ho!
Jello may not be the ideal medium, but it's a kid-friendly one.
STF
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
The number of eggs to be dropped was assigned on the day of the drop - it could have been one to three. Of course she had three.
She used a shoe box that had three cardboard inserted dividers with a hole in each divider. She wrapped the eggs in an old pair of her mom's pantyhose and placed them in the box so there was a small amount of give in the pantyhose (so the egg was not rigidly supported). The eggs were oriented so the bottom/top of the egg was oriented along the long dimension of the box. Around that, she put puff corn (think cheese puffs, but shaped like popcorn) for cushioning. The lid was taped shut.
In the bottom compartment, she placed a small bag of sand. This was used to make sure the box did not flip or rotate.
None of her eggs broke.
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
When it arrived back undamaged they knew that they had a good packaging method.
Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
Wrap egg in 1-2 thin layers of small (sorry, no fun I know) bubble wrap, then saran wrap. Fill sandwich bag with jello and freeze it solid with wrapped egg inside. Rules should prohibit hard boiling the egg, but who would think to specify that you can't freeze it? The jello will thaw a bit on the outside by the time it's dropped, and absorb some shock, but the egg will still be frozen solid inside and still have a solid core of jello around it.
The egg will float in the bag, but if you drop it egg side up, it should stay that way and land jello side down.
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
She worked out how to support it with four separate pieces, running diagonal across a the inside of a 6" box, then she used very soft packing peanuts to cushion it inside a 7" box.
It took a few tries to get the tension correct, but it worked well.
I like the idea of fewer supports and weighting one end of the box.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
1. Both twins decided to use the red tape.
2. After nbr 2 saw how nbr 1 twin decorated an external box, both decided to put the red-tape-wrapped-large-bubble-wrapped egg inside 7x7x1 foam squares stuffed inside a 6x6x6 cardboard box. Then wrapped the cardboard box in, of course, the approved-and-specified official red tape.
3. Both eggs survived.
4. Both twins happy.
5. Grandmother happy.
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
Good result for the twins, next might be a soft landing on one of our planets.
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
STF
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
A parachute would be kind of the clever solution instead of trying to make something take a hard landing.
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
Can the egg still be in the chicken.
My wife just bought her first 14 laying hens. That may have had something to do with my question.
Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
That may well work (Which brings to mind the infamous, "I swear I thought turkeys could fly" Thanksgiving TV episode" quote ...) but the chicken is likely to opposed being thoroughly wrapped in the required red tape.
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
I'm sure there would be blowback from free-rangers, etc.
TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
Welllll, that degree of displeasure of the chicken might well depend on the speed of insertion of the egg, the relative egg-and-chicken diameters, the number of times the egg had been inside any particular chicken, and the LBGT values of the egg in question (er, in chicken).
RE: 12 Foot Egg Drop Problems: Grandkids Have Chosen Their Design, How Would You Do It?
A number of years ago I did this egg dropping contest from 20 foot and my egg survived.
I wrapped drinking straws around the egg horizontally and longitudinally attached with tape and left straws hanging out at each end so it looked like a Christmas cracker, the idea behind the hanging out straws was to act as a energy absorber no matter which way the egg landed, anyway my egg didn't break.
“Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater.” Albert Einstein