Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall!
6th grade science classes explore egg drop experiment
by Scott Fields
March 13, 2008
After finishing the study of Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion, the students put their knowledge to the test. The goal was to prevent an egg from breaking from a drop of 20 feet and then 40 feet onto a concrete sidewalk. The restrictions included no helium balloons, no glass, no splattering material and the container could be no larger than 14in by 14in. Designs were made, and some preliminary drops were done in the classroom before the real thing at the high school stadium.
All the two member teams experienced at least one successful drop with most not harming an egg on either fall. At the conclusion the students wrote why they thought their experiment worked or didn’t work and what they would change to improve it. The students were surprised to see how completely different designs can have the same levels of success, from the simplest, a zip lock bag full of packing peanuts to the more complex, a witches hat parachute with a welded exterior cage supporting a rubber band shock resistant egg cockpit. It was fun, educational, and a success.
Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall!
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