Egg Drop

[tw88]

Okay, here's the deal: I am doing an egg drop tomorrow in my physics class. We are allowed only 25 straws, and scotch tape to do it. What would be the most effective structure to use for this?

By the way, my teacher didn't tell us of any limit on the amount of tape we were allowed to use.

[ricemike]

if you can use as much tape as you want,
i would wrap the egg in straw, loosely,
then a ****load of spaced out tape, like bubble wrap

if you have a limited amount of tape,
i guess do the same

[gerben]

What I would do:
make layers with two straws left to right on top of two straws front to back so that one layer takes 4 straws, repeat this 6 times. Making the squares that you create small at the first layer and increase the squares with every layer, so that you reach a size that just fitts the egg with the 6th layer (it is probably also a good idea to rotate the squares at each layer a little with respect to the previous layer).

Anyway make sure that when your structure of straws breaks under the impact of the fall, that the egg does not touch the floor, (i.e make the lowest square small enough so that the tip of the egg cannot pass through)