How to Design an Egg Crash Landing Device Using Limited Materials

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    Crash Device Egg
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around designing a crash landing device for an egg that can withstand drops from various heights, using only 1 metre of masking tape and 10 sheets of computer paper. Participants share ideas, techniques, and humorous suggestions related to the constraints of the project.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Homework-related

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest using crumpled paper and tape to create a protective sphere around the egg.
  • One participant humorously proposes taping a message to a mattress delivery place instead of focusing on the egg drop challenge.
  • Another participant recommends adapting techniques from a previous discussion on building a paper tower to create a crushable landing pad.
  • Some participants discuss the importance of creating constant supports and suggest using folded strips of paper to enhance structural integrity.
  • There is a suggestion to use small loops of masking tape between layers of paper to create a mattress-like effect for cushioning.
  • One participant raises a concern about the effectiveness of using tape to absorb energy, arguing that it may not adequately support the egg if it lands on unsupported paper.
  • A later reply shares a demonstration from a physics teacher, emphasizing that the goal is to reduce the sudden stop rather than just cushioning the fall.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a variety of ideas and approaches, with no consensus on a single effective design. There are competing views on the best methods to protect the egg, and some participants challenge each other's suggestions.

Contextual Notes

Participants mention limitations such as the requirement for the egg to remain free-standing and the constraints of materials. There is also uncertainty regarding the optimal design and construction techniques for the landing device.

oo-FadedMaximus
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Hey, I need to design an egg crash landing device in order to protect an egg that is being dropped from various heights.

The catch is I am only allowed to use 1 metre of masking tape and 10 sheets of computer paper.

If anybody has done this experiment before or have any suggestions, I would love to hear them thanks!
 
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First, boil the egg.
 
I wish - although that's against the rules.
 
Oh well... that's the extent of my expertise.
 
oo-FadedMaximus said:
Hey, I need to design an egg crash landing device in order to protect an egg that is being dropped from various heights.
The catch is I am only allowed to use 1 metre of masking tape and 10 sheets of computer paper.
If anybody has done this experiment before or have any suggestions, I would love to hear them thanks!

Take a sheet of paper and write on it "Please deliver a mattress to <..enter address here..>". Take the tape and tape this message to the door of a mattress deleivery place.
 
Just crumble up the paper tape it to the egg then make a bigger sphere with the tape on the outside of the crumpled paper.


-Tape
=paper
-Tape
Oegg
-Tape
=paper
-Tape
 
Nothing is allowed to touch the egg, it has to sit free standing on the ground and the egg will be dropped onto it. by the way, i love the matress idea, very humorous.
 
oo-FadedMaximus said:
Hey, I need to design an egg crash landing device in order to protect an egg that is being dropped from various heights.
The catch is I am only allowed to use 1 metre of masking tape and 10 sheets of computer paper.
If anybody has done this experiment before or have any suggestions, I would love to hear them thanks!

Lookup some of the discussions on how to build a 4 foot tower out of a single sheet of computer paper plus tape.

Adapt the construction techniques for the tower to build a crushable "landing pad" instead of a tower.

Key construction elements will be paper beams, consisting of 1 (or possibly 2) folded strips of paper. Joining two strips with slits on the end will probably produce a stronger beam, this is a technique I never tried. See the "paper tower" article for more ideas - if you can find it. It was on this website once, and I think I posted to it, so if you try you should be able to find it with the sites "search" facility.

I'm not sure of the optimum design of the landing pad - I would suggest something like Buckminister Fuller's octet truss, which could be produced from a mass of constant-length paper structual "beams" - or possibly there might be a better construction technique than this by making entire triangles?

http://www.tabletoptelephone.com/~hopspage/Fuller.html
 
Last edited:
Egg Drop

OK, its quite simple , i figured this out with a little help of some of the other things people posted. I have the same project (a yard of tape, 5 sheets of paper). And i figured out the you just neeed to make constant supports. Like i took 3 pieces of skinny paper, like i cut them out of real paper, slim peices, folded them in half; and corossed three of them to make a star looking thing. Then i just taped both of them to the egg, and put a piece of a tube filled with crumbled pieces of paper with each end. You can drop it from a very far height usuing this method, because even if the star crossed supports didnt work, you still have the crumbled pieces of paper. Hope i helped :cool:
 
  • #10
Try putting the sheets flat on top of each other, and use the tape to attach them as tight as possible to the cement.
 
  • #11
KingNothing said:
Try putting the sheets flat on top of each other, and use the tape to attach them as tight as possible to the cement.

:smile: Gotta love those smart-ass remarks... :smile:

Seriously though, perhaps you could make small loops of masking tape and then you could put them between the layers of paper. It would make a good "mattress".
 
  • #12
The only problem with that is that the tape would be absorbing the energy, while the paper would transfer the majority of energy.

Think of it like this: If you have 2 sheets of paper on top of another, and you have little masking tape springs, what if the egg doesn't hit a piece of the paper that isn't supported by the tape? The egg won't decelerate as quickly.

The main goal here is to slow the velocity of the egg. If you could build a tower of some sort, then have the catching mechanism in the middle, it might work.
 
  • #13
Here's the demonstration my HS physics teacher did:

He took an egg and threw it, point blank, as hard as he could, into a bedsheet. The egg didn't break.

The moral is that it's not the fall that hurts, but the sudden stop. So, your goal is to make the stop less sudden. There are many ways to do this.
 

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