Egg Drop Lesson

Essential Questions:

1. How is the challenge of returning people to the Moon or landing on Mars driving scientific and technological
advancement? Or Amazon delivering a package, medical deliveries in remote villages…
2. What affects the speed of a falling object?
3. What are factors involved in designing cost-conscious packaging for fragile objects?
4. How objects absorb impact?

Engagement:

1. Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars (2/22/21)

(3 minutes long) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4czjS9h4Fpg What did the scientists need to consider
to land the rover on Mars?
2. Show the Amazon drone delivery video (about one minute long) :https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Le46ERPMlWU UPS Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CymJVPQE1dg
3. Other optional videos- iPhone drop https://abcnews.go.com/beta-story-container/US/iphone-dropped/story?
id=52286971 Medical airdrop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AZF1TTDdEM
4. KWL Chart
5. Post and discuss an Essential Question

Explore –Our Eggciting Activity – RESEARCH (See research sheet below):

Explain how the class is going to use their ideas about landing on the Mars or delivering packages to research
a system to protect an egg from cracking when dropped from 60 feet.

1. Explore/test different materials to protect the egg

2. Identify forces (4th grade ) –gravity, air resistance, friction?
3. Illustrate the design-- label
4. Explain why “you” think your design will work

Explain/Elaborate: Post Questions—on Eggciting Activity

Additional:

1. For the packages that worked, what characteristics did they have in common?
2. What do you think has a greater impact on the speed at which the egg’s package hits
the ground, the weight of the package or the size of the package? (The size because the greater the
surface area, the greater the air resistance on the object.)
3. How well do you think the egg carton protects eggs? What would you change if anything?
4. What other products can you think of that are over- or under-packaged? What changes would you
make to these?
5. How does cost affect how well products are protected in packaging? (If packaging is
too cheap, it may not protect the product which would cost the company more to replace. If
packaging is too expensive, the product’s profit would be marginalized.)
6. What products might use the same principals as the egg drop packages? (Possible
responses include airplanes that drop off food and medical supplies to countries in conflict or fragile
products that contain glass, etc.)

Extend: Pizza Delivery using drones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CYT4PFV_Hs Watch this video.

Discuss what other items may be helpful to send by drones. (Medical emergencies—medicine. Use medical
video -link above.) What problems could occur with the use of drones? (Too many in sky, crashing, using for
crimes)
Our Egg-citing Challenge

The goal of this challenge is to have a raw chicken egg fall approximately 25 meters onto a hard surface and
survive the impact uncracked. Let's look at the elements of the problem.

 Eggshells are remarkably strong. If you hold an egg in the palm of your hand and try to crush it by
wrapping your fingers around it and squeezing, you will find that it takes a large force to crack the shell.
However, the shell can be broken rather easily by hitting a small area with a hard object. Therefore, you
need to protect your egg from very large forces applied all over and from moderate forces applied to
small areas of contact.
 Falling objects are pulled toward the earth by the force of gravity. The farther they fall, the faster
they will be going when they stop. When an egg reaches the floor after a six-meter drop it will be going
at about 11 meters (36 feet) per second and will be stopped very suddenly when it hits the floor (this is
called the impact). Its speed when it hits the floor is about 37 kilometers (24 miles) per hour.
 An unprotected egg falling six meters onto a hard surface will encounter the worst situation—a
very large force applied to the small area where the egg first contacts the floor. The large force arises
because the egg is going fast and because it is stopped suddenly. The egg will break!
 An additional factor is the mass of the egg and its package. This plays a role, since the mass of the
falling object affects the impact force. By requiring that all entries use chicken eggs, we can assure that
the mass of each egg is essentially the same. That is why other kinds of eggs are not allowed. But the
packaging material adds mass, and that must be a consideration when the package is designed. The two
things you can do to reduce the force on the egg are to slow the egg down and lengthen the time of
impact. You can design a package that will do either or both of these things.
 Slowing the egg down as it falls can be accomplished by using a parachute, wings, or similar device
that relies on the resistance of air. As a parachute expands during descent, more air is trapped and
resistance increases. Therefore, the construction of the parachute is important. Wings slow descent by
increasing the friction of air on the surface of the wings. Wings also affect the direction of fall, and
should be designed to allow the egg to fall vertically. Will the size of the parachute affect the rate of
fall? What materials are best for parachutes? Will the size of wings affect the fall? Is the position of the
wings important? Why? Do you think it is possible to construct a parachute that is so effective in
slowing the descent of the egg that the egg would not have to be protected?
 The faster the descent of the egg, the more important the packing around the egg. An egg in free
fall (no parachute or wings) needs more effective packing than an egg with a parachute.
 Soft, crushable packing that encloses a lot of air is best. Foam rubber, feathers, cotton or synthetic
batting are all good "cushioners." Think of other materials that are soft and yielding, and incorporate air
(stiffly beaten egg whites, milkweed fluff, etc.). What soft, fluffy materials could be tried? How can you
minimize the mass of the package?
 A word of caution—water and other liquids are not permitted under the rules of the contest. And
liquids do not make good "cushioners." It is true that water distributes the impact force over the total
surface of the egg, but water adds mass. This increases the stopping force considerably. Since water is
virtually incompressible, the egg stops abruptly and is unlikely to survive. The use of Jell-o involves
similar problems and is not recommended. Could you find a way to incorporate air into Jell-O? Do you
think that would make it a good cushioning material?

http://storyphysics.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/0/7/23078982/egg_drop_another_teachers_with_physics_infor.pdf
http://homepage.usask.ca/~dln136/projectile/pages/module1.html
Name ______________________________________ Class _____________________

Egg Drop Challenge

Objective: Design a system to protect an egg from cracking or breaking from a high
fall.

Materials: Use anything that you would like from recycled materials.

Illustrate your design in the box.

Explain why you think your egg will be protected from cracking or breaking.

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Post Activity:

1.      Did the egg craft survive the fall?                                                      
 
2.    What was successful in the design of the craft?
                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                        

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    3.  What would you change about your craft if you did the experiment again?

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                        

4. As the egg drops, describe the forces acting on the craft. What force is
pulling the craft down? What force is slowing the craft?