Design
Our egg will be falling down an 8 foot tube.
Our safety compartment has a rigid
seat that will prevent the egg from
sliding inside the compartment. It has
both airbags and side crumple zones.
We have 2 crumple zones on each
side, prepared for both a front and back
collision.
The Crash
During the fall, there are various energy
conversions, but the total amount of
energy, measured in joules, stays the
same. Energy is constantly changing
forms, but it always has the same total
amount, depending on the mass. At the
very beginning of the fall, there is all
Gravitational Potential energy.
As time passes, the GPE transforms into
KE, Kinetic Energy, following the law of
conservation of energy.
Right before the egg hits the floor and
there is no GPE, there is all KE. We know
The Gerald
that these are equal, so we can use A unique safety design built for the worst
algebra to find the velocity.
g h = 21 v 2
9.8m/s2 * 2.6m = 21 v 2
2(9.8m/s2 * 2.6m) = v
19.6m/s2 * 5.2m) = v
101.92m2 /s2 = v
10.09m/s = v
Now we know that the velocity of the
safety compartment right before it hits the
ground is 10.089m/s. We found this
through the Law of Conservation of
energy.
 Body
The body is made out of a combination
of paperboard and wooden dowels.
There is 3 layers of paperboard,
guaranteeing sturdiness, and if that
fails, it is also built in with wooden
dowels to secure it when a collision
occurs.
Airbag and Crumple Zone
The airbag and crumple zones are both
made out of the same material for the
same reason, to increase the stopping
time of the egg. The crumple zone
increases the stopping time of the
vehicle, increasing the stopping time of
the egg. The airbag increases the
stopping time of the egg after the
crumple zone. Both provide maximum
safety in many situations.
Newtons Laws Law of
An object in motion remains in motion
unless acted on by an unbalanced force. Conservation of
The egg continues moving, even after the
collision. This seems odd, but it is true.
When the compartment stops after hitting
Momentum
the ground, the egg continues moving until When the weight comes down it has a
stopped by the body of the compartment. certain amount of momentum, which we
The eggs yolk also moves until stopped can figure out. We know gravity has the
by the egg itself. This is why the airbag is same amount of force on all objects, so
necessary. The fall isnt what kills, but the the velocity of the weight is 4.84 m/s.
sudden stop. The egg needs to slowly
come to a stop, and this is done by the
Error
airbag and crumple zone.
(2.28kg)(10.089 m/s) =
The more mass an object has, the more 23 kg * m/s
force required to accelerate it, negatively The total momentum before and after
or positively. the collision is 23 kilograms*m/s. This
F=ma is constant and cant change with the
The floor is not going to move. It has a set rules of the crash. The momentum
very, very large mass, and would take a of both objects is added up to make the
much greater force to move it. So instead
total momentum after the collision.
of the floor accelerating by the egg, the
egg is accelerated by the floor, but
negatively. It comes to a sudden stop
because it did not have a large enough
force.
For every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction.
When the egg hits the ground, it exerts a
force onto it in a certain direction. The
ground exerts an equal force in the
opposite direction onto the egg. This is
why the egg doesnt burrow through the
ground, creating a deep hole.