Name: ____________________

Period_______________

Engineering Design Challenge

Egg Car Crash
Objective:
To apply your science knowledge of Energy and Newton’s Laws of Motion to design and build a
crashworthy vehicle.

Introduction:
The popularity of the automobile has brought with it some undesirable effects. Among these are air
pollution, traffic jams, and traffic fatalities. Each year, thousands of people are injured or killed as
a result of automobile accidents. Because of this, automotive safety design has become a major
part of the auto industry.
Safety engineers have concluded that passenger restraints are one safety device that could reduce
automobile fatalities dramatically. Seat belts and shoulder harnesses keep passengers from being
thrown from the vehicle or bounced around inside of the vehicle causing injury. Another important
category of safety devices are energy absorbing devices. They absorb or cushion the impact of a
collision. Some examples of energy absorbing systems include airbags, bumpers and crumple zones.
The combination of passenger restraint systems and energy absorbing devices designed into a
vehicle can help to save many lives. This activity will allow you to assume the role of a safety
engineer as you design, install, and test various safety devices for a crash vehicle.

Design Brief:
As a mechanical engineer employed for a major automobile manufacturer you have been assigned
the task of designing and installing safety devices for a new test vehicle. The vehicle must be
aerodynamically designed, and it must be able to roll along a test ramp and into an immovable object
at the end of the track (e.g., the wall) while protecting the passenger (a raw egg) from injury.

Rules and Requirements:

1. There can be no physical contact between you and your car once the vehicle has been released on
the track.
2. The design must allow for easy removal and inspection of the egg. You may test your vehicle with
a plastic egg before receiving your real egg on competition day.
3. Repairs requiring additional materials will not be allowed once the competition has begun.
4. Using the time and mass data collected, students will calculate:

A. the weight of the vehicle, F = ma, a = gravity = 9.8 m/s/s

B. the speed of the vehicle, S = D/T
C. the acceleration of the vehicle, A = (Vf - Vi )/T
D. the force of impact of the vehicle, F = ma

Maximum Width – 10 inches

Maximum Length – 12 inches
Maximum Mass – 90 grams (without egg)
 Pre-Construction Thought Questions:
Answer the following questions using complete sentences

1. How will the mass of the car affect its speed?

2. What can I add to my car to make the egg safe when the car hits the wall?

3. Should the egg be able to move within the car, or should it be held immobile?

4. How can the car be designed to easily remove and inspect the egg?

5. List any design features that will maximize your car’s overall speed and
crashworthiness.
 Safety Egg Crash Calculations:
Total Mass of car, restraint, bumper, and eggs: ___________ (grams)

Convert this to kilograms (1000g = 1kg) ___________ (kilograms)

Distance of track: _________(cm)

Convert this to meters (100cm=1m) _______ (m)

Time for car to reach wall after start: _______ (sec)

Calculations (remember to include the correct units!):

1. Weight (remember, gravity is an acceleration and weight is a force!)

Weight = Mass • Gravity

gravity = 10 m/s2

2. Speed (velocity): Speed = Distance/Time

3. Acceleration: A= (Vf- Vi)/T

4. Force: Force = Mass • Acceleration

 Post-Race Thought Questions:
Answer the following questions using complete sentences. (3-5 sentences each)

1. Explain what you were investigating in this project and why it is important.

2. Describe the problems you encountered during the design/construction process and how
you solved them.

3. Did your car perform as well as you expected for both speed and crashworthiness?
What problems, if any, did you encounter during your crash test?

4. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of your design.

5. Considering all the cars in your class, which design features produced the highest
speeds?
6. Considering all the cars in your class, which design features produced the fewest
cracked eggs?

7. Did the car with the greatest speed also have the greatest momentum? Explain how a
slower car can have more momentum than a faster car.

8. Discuss how you would modify your car to improve its performance in terms of both
speed and crashworthiness.

Class Data Summary:

Speed of the fastest car in the class

Car with the most mass (including the egg)

Total number of cars crashed

Number of broken eggs

Number of unbroken eggs