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Running head: EGG DROP EXPERIMENT

Egg Drop Experiment


Ben Trotter and Christopher J. Urbanek
Lansdale Catholic High School

Introduction
One of the most important aspects of physics is having a grasp on the concept of Newtons
three laws of motion. All three laws can be displayed in the egg drop lab experiment. In the lab, a
contraption is constructed from wooden toothpicks and hot glue. Inside the contraption is a
standard egg. The general goal is to drop the contraption from a specified height and have the
egg survive unscathed. This can be done by by designing the contraption with consideration of
what forces will be acting on it.
Newtons first law of motion is every object in a state of uniform motion remains in that
state unless an external force is applied to it ("Vectors: Velocities, Accelerations, and Forces").
This means any object at rest remains at rest and objects in motion will remain in constant
motion. However, unless an object is in a vacuum, there are always forces acting on an object.
Moving objects will eventually slow down and stop due to frictional forces. All objects that are
not in a vacuum are affected by gravity. In the case of the contraption for the egg drop lab, there
will be no frictional forces to slow it down. The air resistance is negligible and there are no
acting horizontal forces. The contraption starts from rest and continuously accelerates due to
gravity until it abruptly stopped by the floor.
Newtons second law is the relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and
the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors ; in this law the direction of
the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector ("Vectors: Velocities,
Accelerations, and Forces"). This states that when an object is accelerating, there is force being
exerted. If there is no acceleration, there is no net force and the object is either moving at a
constant velocity or at rest. This is called equilibrium, when all forces are balanced (Henderson).
The egg drop contraption starts in equilibrium, when gravity is being balanced by the normal

force from the holder. When the holder drops the contraption, gravity becomes the only force
acting on the contraption. Since the forces are unbalanced, and gravity acts downward, the object
will accelerate down until it hits the floor. When it hits the floor, the contraption will have the
normal force of the floor and gravity balance each other and it will be at equilibrium again.
Newtons third law is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction ("Vectors:
Velocities, Accelerations, and Forces"). Since all forces act in pairs, there is an equal and
opposite reaction for the force. When the egg drop contraption hits the ground, there will be an
opposite, but equal force being inflicted on the contraption from the floor. This is what causes the
egg to break. The contraption must be created to counter the force of the floor and absorb or
redistribute the opposing force. In theory, having an object with a large, flatter surface area is
ideal. When that object hits the ground, the reaction force is equally distributed across all parts of
the impact side of the contraption. If the contraption where to be pointed, or land on a small
surface area, then all of the opposing force is directed in a single area and not spread out, making
the damage potentially more destructive.
When breaking the lab down, the survivability off the egg rests more so in what materials are
used over how it is constructed. Toothpicks are rigid, lack much pliability and are fairly dense.
On the other hand, hot glue is softer and has the capability to absorb much more shock. To yield
the best results, the use of glue as cushioning may be the most reliable building material

Objective

The objective of this lab was to construct a contraption capable of protecting an egg from

a fall greater than 4 meters.


The contraption must be composed of only toothpicks and glue
The contraption must weigh under 40 grams. The must survive the fall without any
damage.

Procedures
1. Obtain materials needed.
2. Prepare hot glue gun.
3. Construct a contraption using only hot glue and toothpicks.
4. Weigh the contraption.
5. Obtain egg to be used.
6. Weight the egg.
7. Load the egg into the contraption.
8. Weigh the contraption with the egg inside.
9. Drop egg over railing.
10. Check egg for breakage.
11. If broken, repeat steps 1-10 until successful.
Materials

1 hot glue gun


5 hot glue sticks
1 grade A large egg
1 box of 250 toothpicks
3 paper plates
1 measuring scale

Pictures of Contraptions

Data Table

Mass of Contraption (g)

38.28 grams

Mass of Egg (g)

51.17 grams

Total Mass (Contraption + Egg (g)

89.45 grams or .08945 kilograms`

Measured Height / Y (m)

- 4.65 meters

Measured Time / t (s)

1.20 seconds

Theoretical Height / Y (m)

-7.06 meters

Theoretical Time (s)

0.97 seconds

Theoretical Final Velocity (m/s)

-11.77m/s

Force (N)

.8775 Newtons

Work (J)

4.08 Joules

Power (J/s)

3.40 J/s

Potential Energy (J)

4.08 Joules

Kinetic Energy (J)

6.20 Joules

Sample Calculations

Formulas Used:
Y=(Vi)(t)+()(g)(t)^2
Vf=Vi+(g)(t)
Force=(mass in kilograms)(g)
Work=(Force)(Y)
Power=Work/t

Potential Energy=(mass in kilograms)(g)(Y)


Kinetic Energy=()(mass in kilograms)(velocity)^2
g=gravity= -9.81m/s^2
Vi=initial velocity=0m/s

Theoretical Height
Y=(Vi)(t)+()(g)(t)^2
Y=(0m/s)(1.20s)+()(-9.81m/s^2)(1.20s)^2
Y= -7.06m

Theoretical Time
Y=(Vi)(t)+()(g)(t)^2
Rearranged formula: t = {[Y- (Vi)(t)]/()(g)}
t = {[-4.65m - (0m/s)(1.20s)]/()(-9.81m/s^2)}
t = {[-4.65m - 0m]/(-4.91m)}
t = (-4.65m/-4.91m/s^2)
t = 0.97s

Theoretical Final Velocity


Vf=Vi+(g)(t)
Vf=0m/s + (-9.81m/s^2)(1.20s)
Vf= -11.77m/s

Force

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Force=(mass in kilograms)(g)
Force=(.08945 kg)(9.81m/s^2)
Force=.8775 N

Work
Work=(Force)(Y)
Work=(.8775 N)(4.65m)
Work=4.08 J

Power
Power=Work/t
Power=4.08 J/1.2s
Power=3.40 J/s

Potential Energy
Potential Energy=(mass in kilograms)(g)(Y)
Potential Energy=(.08945 kg)(-9.81m/s^2)(-4.65m)
Potential Energy=4.08 J

Kinetic Energy
Kinetic Energy=()(mass in kilograms)(velocity)^2
Kinetic Energy=()(.08945 kg)(-11.77m/s)^2
Kinetic Energy=6.20 J
Conclusion

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In this experiment, a contraption was to be built out of only hot glue and toothpicks to
hold an egg and be dropped over a railing almost five meters high. The contraption had to weigh
less than forty grams without the egg inside. After all measurements were made, the contraption
with the egg inside was dropped over the railing. The goal was to have an egg with no cracks or
breakage after the drop. If any breakage was visible, another contraption must have been built to
attempt to complete the experiment. This was to be repeated until a successful drop was
achieved. To successfully complete this experiment, a complete understanding of Isaac Newtons
three laws of motion was necessary.
All three of Newtons laws were demonstrated throughout the course of this experiment.
Newtons first law, every object in a state of uniform motion remains in that state unless an
external force is applied to it ("Vectors: Velocities, Accelerations, and Forces"), is demonstrated
by the egg hitting the ground. In this case, the ground acts as an outside force causing the
contraption to halt its movement. His second law, the relationship between an object's mass m,
its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors ; in
this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector
("Vectors: Velocities, Accelerations, and Forces"), is displayed by the mass of the contraption
and the acceleration of it combining to create a certain amount of force when the contraption hits
the ground. Finally, Newtons third law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
("Vectors: Velocities, Accelerations, and Forces"), is shown by the contraption hitting the ground.
When the contraption hits the ground a force is given off by both the contraption and the ground
causing the contraption to either break or stay intact.
The data obtained from this experiment is evidence to many things. The data shows that
the contraption was able to withstand the force shown in the data tables. This is possible because

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of how the contraption was built. The contraption was built to use the hot glue as a shock
absorber. The egg was coated with roughly thirty grams of hot glue. It also used toothpicks on
the outside of the coat surrounding the entire egg to break the fall of the egg and slow it down
before it hit the ground. When the egg finally hit the ground, most of the impact was absorbed by
the hot glue. This let the egg bounce around a little while still taking no damage. Although this
method works and has data to back it up, the theoretical data states different calculations than the
calculations obtained during the experiment.
The reason the theoretical data and the manually calculated data are not exactly the same
is most likely due to human error. One possible error is the height at which the contraption was
launched at. The launcher could have let the contraption go at a height that was either higher or
lower than the measured launch height. Also, because of human reaction time it is almost
impossible to time the drop perfectly. This would cause the time recorded to be off causing the
calculations to be incorrect. Other errors in this experiment were with the several contraptions
that failed to keep the egg safe. These contraptions did not succeed for a number of reasons. One
reason is the egg was not stable inside of it causing the egg to move around and break against the
contraption. Another reason they did not succeed was because they were too fragile and broke
too easily. Although the theoretical data and the measured data are not exactly the same both can
be explained reasonably.

Works Cited
Benson, T. (n.d.). Conservation of Energy. Retrieved February 14, 2015, from
.

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/thermo1f.html

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Henderson, T. (n.d.). Balanced and Unbalanced Forces. Retrieved February 14, 2015, from
.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/newtlaws/Lesson-1/Balanced-and-Unbalanced-Forces

Vectors: Velocities, Accelerations, and Forces. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2015, from
.

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/velocity.html

Contributions

Ben Trotter - built contraptions, dropped contraptions, filmed drops, procedures, materials,
pictures of contraptions, and conclusion.

Christopher J. Urbanek - built contraptions, dropped contraptions, filmed drops, title page,
introduction, objective, data table, sample calculations, works cited, and contributions
.

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