Egg drop Contest- Help Please!!

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by bighpfreak

What does everyone think about a pyramid shaped thing?

it wont keep the eggs from breaking, but it will keep them fresh when they do :^)

http://www.hotdotmusic.com/lyricsbyt...+The/Pyramania

[bighpfreak]

haha So you don't think that building some sort of a pyramid and attaching the eggs to the middle of it won't help?

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by bighpfreak

haha So you don't think that building some sort of a pyramid and attaching the eggs to the middle of it won't help?

would it land on a point or an edge or on a surface?

[bighpfreak]

Hmm...well if it were to land on a surface, it would be alright, don't you think??

[sciguy125]

Ok, I just checked the rules for my school's upcoming egg drop (excuse me...egg "deceleration"...) contest. I'm mad that my idea is illegal. Particularly becuase they upped first prize to $2500. With that, you will prove my idea for me.

Suspend the egg in some sort of viscous fluid. The force that would normally be directed to one side of the egg should be distributed evenly along the entire surface of the egg. The problem is that the fluid has to be viscous but still fairly light. I think some sort of dilluted corn syrup might work.

[greencactus3]

how about a pool of CA?

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by sciguy125

Ok, I just checked the rules for my school's upcoming egg drop (excuse me...egg "deceleration"...)
.

You mean negative acceleration, right?

[Jeff Rodriguez]

I'm going to have to do an egg drop competition this semester. We can only use paper and glue, that's it. The egg will be dropped about 3 stories onto a paved lot.
I'm thinking parachute and air packets to break the fall.

[sanddrag]

I think the best chance of winning this is building as many different things as you can before hand and extensively testing all of them at home. Then the one that works the best, perfect it.

[bighpfreak]

I'm thinking that might work best.

A cominbation of pyramid shapes, balloons, padding, and a parachute. Sound good?

[greencactus3]

well also keep in mind the faster the Vx the less the impact force. well bad wording but i hope you get the idea. so paper airplaneish idea?

[bighpfreak]

Thanks everyone, for all your ideas. I have the next day to brainstorm more ideas, and I will be back to discuss some more things.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by greencactus3

well also keep in mind the faster the Vx the less the impact force.

I don't have the time at the moment to really think about this but isn't that not true? The Y (vertical) component of the velocity is going to do whatever it is going to do regardless of what the x component is (if you disregard air friction). So, by putting in an x component, aren't you just adding kinetic energy to the system increasing the impact force?

I see what you are saying in that a plane has a smoother landing than a helicopter that drops out of the sky but I think a rock that you throw off horizontally hits just as hard, if not harder than a rock you drop straight down. Also, I think that if I drop two rocks at the same time, one with a parachute and one with wings, and they hit the ground at the same time, then there is no advantage to having the wings. However, if by having wings prolongs the time to decend (decreases the vertical velocity) then it would be advantageous.

I think what you mean is you want some lift or air friction or something to minimize the vertical component of the velocity and maybe as an effect of doing that you will increase the horizontal component. But back to my example of throwing a rock vs dropping a rock, they both hit with the same downward speed, and the thrown one hits with greater impact actually since it has more energy. So, I'm thinking you knew what you meant but didn't say it in quite the right way.

Of course, I could be totally wrong. I don't know. I don't even eat eggs hardly at all.

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

You mean negative acceleration, right?

No, the contest is called egg decelleration. The flyer said something about an egg being able to fall 2 miles as long as it doesn't decelerate too suddenly.

Originally Posted by greencactus3

also keep in mind the faster the Vx the less the impact force

That would only work if the system (like an airplane, as you mentioned) was such that >Vx resulted in <Vy. If we were to follow a particle, Vx and Vy would be completely independent of each other. Assuming no spin, Vx creates a rubbing force on the object, while Vy causes a crushing force. Well, the acceleration does, but it'll be proportional to V. I guess that, in general, <Vy will result in <dVy/dt.

In something like a parachute, I still don't think that Vx matters. How ever your system is designed, in order to decrease the impact force, dVy/dt has to be minimized. If your system is such that Vy is inversely proportional to Vx, then yes, >Vx would create <Vy and thus <dVy/dt.

[greencactus3]

yea. i guess usingvx and such outta the top of my head when im tired wasnt a good idea. well the plan was that you can roll away. see, if you jump off a roof, theres 2 ways to do it. one is hang off the ledge as low as you can go and then bend your knees as you impact trying to gain time to reduce force. the other would be running as fast as you can sidewways off the roof and then rolling once you hit ground. techinically if its a person you'd also be cushioning yourself but think. a car dropped straight down will not survive but if you have a high enough Vx and the impact has little friction then the car will roll away. even if the Vy at the impact is the same the force is deflected i guess? bad wording sorry. but that was what i was going for

or you can do the glider i dea as sumone said