Incredible, Inedible Bungee-Jumping Egg

Law of Conservation of Mechanical Energy

I. Purpose
The purpose of this lab is to apply the conservation of mechanical energy to the bungee
jumping apparatus to predict the length of bungee material (rubber bands + string)
necessary for a raw egg “jumper” to experience an “eggstreme” jump (just barely miss
hitting the ground, between 0 and 30 centimeters).

II. Design/ Procedure (Cindy)

Materials: bungee jumping eggs, paper clips, rubber bands, strong, meter sticks, varying
masses, spring scales, hole punch, sandwich baggs, cellphone
1. Prepare all the materials listed above.
2. Obtain 75 rubber bands and link them together into a chain. (*there should be no
knots between them or it will be hard to calculate the elastic constant)
3. Hang the rubber bands chain vertically and hang a 50g weight under it.
4. Use a meter stick to measure the length of the chain after stretching. Repeat steps
3 and 4 to measure stretching length of the chain with 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100g
weight.
5. Hold the rubber bands chain on the table and connect the other side with the
spring scale. Apply 50g force to stretch it horizontally.
6. Use a meter stick to measure the length of the chain after stretching. Repeat steps
5 and 6 to measure stretching length of the chain with 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100g
force.
7. Record and analyze the data to calculate the value of k.
8. Determine how long the string needs to be and attach it on the rubber bands chain.
9. Cut the sandwich bag in half and tape it along the cut.
10. Punch a hole in the top and put a paper clip through it to attach to the chain.
11. Put your egg into the bag.
12. Take all your equipment to the hallway and drop your egg.
13. Use cellphone to record a video and see where your egg lands.

III. Data (Renee)

Recorded Displacement Length of the Bungee Apparatus with Designated Weight

Weight (kg) Force (Newton) Displacement (meter) Spring constant k

0.225 ~2.22
0.050 0.500
0.230 ~2.17

0.215 ~2.38
 0.430 ~2.33
0.100 1
0.450 ~2.22

0.455 ~2.22

0.680 ~2.17
0.150 1.5
0.675 ~2.22

0.675 ~2.22
*Initial length of the bungee apparatus: 1.98 meter

Graph I: The Relationship of the Recorded Displacement Length of the Bungee Apparatus with
Designated Force Applied

IV. Analysis (Alina)

According to Graph I, we can observe that displacement versus the force applied displays a
linear relationship that increases proportionally, and the slope of linear is approximately 2.2.
Since slope equals to the data on the y-axis divided by the data on the x-axis, so the slope equals
the value of spring constant, k, which is:

k = – F (force) /x (displacement when the bungee apparatus stretched)

Then, for the egg fastened on one end of the bungee apparatus being able to reach the minimum
distance to the floor withouting hitting the ground, we need to use the conservation of
mechanical energy, which is energy can neither be destroyed nor created in a closed system, to
calculate the length needed for the attached string. The initial energy involved should be the
same as the energy in the final, so the equation applied is:
Einitial = EFinal
⇒ (Kinetic Energy + Ugravity + Uspring)initial = (Kinetic Energy + Ugravity + Uspring)final
mgh= ½ kx2

in which m is the mass of the object in kilogram, g is the gravitational acceleration, h is the total
drop height, k is the spring constant, and x is the stretch distance of elastic. In our experiment
shown in Diagram I, m is the mass of the egg and h is the height from platform to the ground
minus the length of the Ziploc® bag.

m = 65g = 0.065kg
g = 10 m/s2
h = 5.25 (m, the height from platform to Ground) - 0.15(the length of the Ziploc® bag) = 5.1m
k = 2.2 N/m

Take the data into the equation to calculate x, the stretch distance of elastic:

mgh= ½ kx^2
(0.065kg)*(10 m/s2)*(5.10m) = ½ (2.2N/m)* x2
⇒ x2 = 3.014
⇒ x ~ 1.73 m

The length of the string equals to the total drop height minus the length of unstretched elastic and
stretch distance of elastic: L = 5.10m - 1.74m - 1.98m = 1.39m

According to the result calculated above, we tied a string about 1.39m on the other end of the
bungee apparatus. The result of the bungee jump done in the 5th floor railing on the other side of
the campus is within the range of Thrilling!, that is about 30cm to 50cm above the floor.

V. Conclusion
Alina
To conclude, the results of our experiment didn’t come out as expected. We only reached the
“yarn” level on the board, way above the “eggstream” level. If we are to do this experiment
again, we believe that all of our measurements can be more precise. First, because the meterstick
isn’t long enough to cover the entire span of the length of the rubber bands stretch when applied
to different weights and the pulling forces on the spring scale, we need to measure the entire
length in three parts. This will create some uncertainties as there might be overlapping parts or
even unmeasured parts, influencing how the k constant comes out as. Furthermore, in order to be
more precise, we subtracted all parts of the bungee jumping apparatus, including the rubber
bands and the paper clips, all except for the string part. However, as we only decided to add the
paper clips part at the very end, we did not have time to actually measure them ourselves, so we
copied another group’s data. So if this experiment is to be done again we should measure that
data ourselves. Overall, although our experiment didn’t work, through observing other successful
groups’, we realized that the conservation of mechanical energy is indeed correct in that most of
the gravitational potential energy became kinetic energy, with air resistance stopping the rest
from turning into kinetic energy.

Cindy
The difference between the predicted land place and the actual place we reached in the
experiment shows that there might be some errors or mistakes in our experiment. First, our
measurements for the length of the 2~3m long rubber bands chain may not be accurate because
we only have one meter stick. By reusing the meterstick, there might be some overlapped region
or extra length in our measurements, making them inaccurate. Second, we forgot to measure the
length of the chain before stretching. As the F=-kx formula required, we need to subtract the new
value from the original length in order to get the x. However, we calculated the k constant in the
wrong way so its value is not correct. Thus we cannot calculate the correct rope length we need.
In conclusion, the result of this experiment is not quite good since we are far more above from
the “eggstream” level. In order to do this experiment better, we should apply the correct formula
to get the length of the rope we want, and replace the meter stick with tape measure to minimize
the uncertainties in our measurements. Despite the errors in this experiment, we learned that the
mechanical energy at the top and bottom will be the same if there is no external force applied,
according to the Law of Conservation Energy.