Re: Egg drop Contest- Help Please!!
 

You can't simply disregard Vx. If you take your box and throw it across the room, it will hit the ground and roll. And the force with which it impacts the ground (i think) is actually the sum of the horizontal and vertical vectors. It takes ALL the force, not just the Y force.

But hey, I've only had two months of physics, so don't quote me.

Re: Egg drop Contest- Help Please!!
 

It's not quite the sum, since you need to use the Pythagorean theorem (V^2 = Vx^2 + Vy^2).

However, assuming that the contraptions are dropped straight down, an airplane design might be advantageous, since it would convert vertical velocity to horizontal velocity. Horizontal velocity is advantageous here because it is very easy to slowly decelerate in a horizontal direction since your stopping distance is virtually unlimited. Your vertical stopping distance in this case is the distance from your egg to the leading edge of your container, which is much shorter. Remember that F=ma, so the lower the acceleration (or deceleration), the lower the force on the egg.

That said, I agree that the key to winning is to practice with several designs.

Re: Egg drop Contest- Help Please!!
 

only if the box stops there. if the box keeps going with Vx. then the force will be less

Re: Egg drop Contest- Help Please!!
 

know what you need? those hand warmer chemical things?

you need one of those, on steriods.

Use it for packing material, and if it just happens to cook the egg on the way down, well.... thats not your fault is it?

Re: Egg drop Contest- Help Please!!
 

Now THAT is thinking outside the box. Nice one.

two approaches
 

The way I see it, there are two main approaches:
1. Padding the fall
2. Slowing the fall

The most effective solution will combine both of these aspects, to slow the fall and pad it. Just something to think about.

Question: Do they let you tell them where to hold it when they drop it? Solutions that rely on being dropped in the correct orientation (for example, for short falls, and perhaps for longer ones, a parachute would need to be dropped in the open/opening position from above the payload to be effective) would not work if they do not let you dictate what orientation your device is dropped in.


I just landed on a killer solution! Wrap the eggs in 20 layers of duct tape. They may crack, but the judges will never be able to unwrap the whole thing and prove it! They will be forced to hand over the prize! :)

Re: two approaches
 

3. Cooking the egg
4. speeding up time (and thereby slowing down the impact)
5.vaporizing the sidwalk just before impact
6. cancelling gravity (open a black hole, worm hole?)
7. Telekinese
8. Hypnosis (these are not the eggs your looking for, move along)
9. Slight off hand: where did the egg go? here it is, behind your ear!
10. Time travel (have the egg jump ahead and skip over the impact)
11. camera tricks
12. rubber eggs (from rubber chickens?)
13. Bribe the judge
14. Marry the judges daughter
15. replace the sidewalk with a block of foam (also known as 'foaming the runway')
16. magnetic eggs

hey Im just getting warmed up here :^)

Re: Egg drop Contest- Help Please!!
 

How about this one: just leave it on the roof and wait for quantum mechanics to do it's job. Eventually, it'll spontaniously appear on the ground. Actually...it'll probably appear in the air and plummet to it's death first...

Re: Egg drop Contest- Help Please!!
 

can you leave the egg in the chicken, and drop the chicken?

or use a raw chicken?

Re: Egg drop Contest- Help Please!!
 

You might be better off with a live chicken. As opposed to the eggs, they have self-preservation insincts and will take extra measures to ensure their survival.

Well, if you get a fertilized egg and wait for it hatch, you could drop the resulting chicken.

Re: Egg drop Contest- Help Please!!
 

noone ever said anythign about it being a chicken egg.how about like a frog egg?

Re: Egg drop Contest- Help Please!!
 

I dont know if anyone brought this up yet? what if you encased the egg in silly putty?

silly putty will flow and mold itself into any shape or space, but when you drop it, it bounces

and since the patent has expired, you can now buy fifty pound boxes of the material from Dow, for about $7 a pound.

Ive seen it sold on the internet in smaller quantity, for about $10 a pound.

the hard part would be getting the silly putty back off the egg.