Nanyo NHS Science Club - Egg Drop Challenge

INTRODUCTION

This fun parachute egg drop experiment is a great demonstration of the forces acting on parachutes. If you drop something it falls to the ground. This is because it is pulled by the gravity of the Earth. You’ll notice that some things drop faster than others, this is because of air resistance. Try dropping a piece of paper and a lego brick. Which drops the fastest?

OBJECTIVE

At the end of the activity, students must be able to construct a design/structure that will keep a raw egg safe when dropped from a significant height.

MATERIALS

6 pieces of paper

1 meter string of yarn

1 meter scotch tape

Scissors

1 raw egg

GUIDELINES

This activity will be done by group.
Each group will construct a design that will keep an egg free from any crack when it is being dropped from 2nd floor of the building to the ground.
Materials are limited to common household items: paper, yarn and scotch tape.
Each group will be given 50 minutes to construct the best possible design.
After 50 minutes, one representative of the group will drop the egg from the 2nd floor of the building to the ground.
The egg that does not break wins.

DOCUMENTATION

The egg drop challenge was conducted in the classrooms so that everyone in the class can participate the activity. A collaborative effort was made by each group in accomplishing the best possible design to protect the egg. The activity was facilitated by the Science Teacher, Sweetzel Mier-Josol.

The dropping of eggs.

SCIENCE BITS

An egg dropped without anything to slow it down will fall fast and break, the parachute add air resistance slowing the fall, and stopping the egg from breaking!

When the egg was dropped, the strings that are attached to the paper above pull down and this opens the paper to full size, which creates a large surface area and more wind resistance. More wind resistance slows down the descent of the egg.

You can explain the results of this experiment with the concept of resistance. Wind resistance, also called drag, is simply a force that acts on a solid object. Car designers often factor in wind resistance when designing a car to help it have greater fuel efficiency and accelerate to high speeds more easily. In this experiment, your goal was to create more wind resistance to slow the speed of the object. The largest parachute created more resistance and slowed the descent of the egg the most.

Source:https://www.education.com/science-fair/article/egg-parachute/