How Can I Create an Effective Parachute for My Egg Drop Project?

[Audience]

For a science project we have to make an ''egg protector''. It has to have:

-parachute and
-base to hold egg in

(I just joined 30 minutes ago and could not find a forum like this. So sorry if this is a duplicate.)

Aaaaaanyways, our group has to drop it from a 5m tall height, the egg cannot break.
To make matters worse, I've gotten an ESL and the dumbest boy in my class in my group . . . who ruined the project TWO times. Oh, and you cannot believe what some of the other groups made. (A giantic garbage bag attached to 3 HELIUM BALLOONS . . . -_-)
I've came up with this awesome base with absorbs the pressure and also streches, but I'm scratching my head with the parachute. I want to make one with actual physics, and NOT a giantic garbage bag attached to 3 helium balloons. Help!
I'm basically on my own on this. The PARACHUTE IS KILLING ME! Any ideas?

Thanks,
Audience

P.S. Please don't say giantic garbage bag. Or helium balloons.

 

[FlexGunship]

I still hold the record for best "Egg Drop" in my middle school. My design was featured twice in the local newspaper. Once when I used it to win, and again, several years later, when my younger brother repeated my victory.

Use two pieces of duct tape to secure an egg to a cardboard box lid. One requirement is that the sides of the lid must be taller than the egg (just in case it lands upside down). Just the lid! Discard the actual box. This design turns the entire transport mechanism into a parachute.

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/pokeorder_2140_221715908

Other folks had complex parachutes, suspension mechanisms, one kid put his in Jell-o, and a hundred other ideas.

I duct-taped an egg to a box lid. Took 5 seconds. Survived not only the initial drop, but also the endurance test (dropped until broken). Never broke. Also, our test was from the fourth story window of our middle school onto the parking lot. You can throw it like a Frisbee, drop it upside down, sideways, or whatever. I had to replace one corner of duct-tape ONCE. No padding, nothing.

 

[Audience]

Nice Idea.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

We have a ton of threads on this already, please use the search.