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Re: Egg Drop Info



Dear Dr. Mackey,


In addition to what I have forwarded there is some practical info
regarding egg drop engineering at on the NSTA web site. I found this
when I was downloading the stuff we are supposed to know after taking
physics.

The following was taken from the Angelo State University Physics
Olympics for 1997
URL: http://quark.angelo.edu/sps/eggdrop.htm


Egg Drop Contest

Objective:

To design a container that will protect a raw egg dropped from a height
of about 10 meters (2½
stories) onto a concrete surface.

Apparatus:

Each team will construct one container with dimensions not exceeding a
cube measuring 40cm ×
40cm × 40cm. The container may be constructed of any material. The
container will be dropped
from a point directly above the center of a 5 square meter landing area,
in which it must land. Eggs
will be provided by the organizers.

Procedure:

The container will be dropped from a hinged board extended over a
concrete surface. The container
need not survive the fall, but the egg must. A cracked or broken egg will
disqualify the entry. The
egg will be inspected by the judge immediately following the drop. The
main contest will include only
one drop for each team's device. If more than one container survives the
fall, a special prize will be
awarded for the egg that survive the most falls, i.e., they will be
dropped continually until the egg
cracks.

Scoring:

Scoring for the main contest will be based on the following equation:

score = mass + 10 × (time - timeff)

where

mass = mass of the egg container in grams (not including the egg)
time = time from release of the device till its impact, to 0.1
seconds.
timeff = sqrt(2h/g) = time for an object to freefall when dropped
from a height h under a
gravitational acceleration g*.

The device with the lowest score is the winner. (In other words, the
lightest and fastest-falling
container wins!)

*gsan angelo = 9.979071 ± .005 m/s²

Lee Wilmoth Lerner
Fairhope High School, Fairhope, AL USA Email via:
lw.lerner@juno.com
“But I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not
knowing things,
by being lost in the mysterious universe....” -- Richard Feynman
"...unless, of course, I have a test" -- LWL

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