How can I slow down the speed of a egg in a egg drop project?

Answer 1

Drop the egg through a tube whose inner diameter is just bigger than that of the egg. One end of the tube has to be closed. Drop the egg into the tube with the closed end down.
The egg will drop slowly into the tube because the air trapped inside the tube takes time to rush out in the space between the tube & the egg. The closer the fit the slower the descent.
Then just invert the tube (closed end up) for your egg drop project !!!!

Answer 2

OK I HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE GOOD SIR ! AND I HAVE BEEN VICTORIOUS.

You havent given many details. If I knew what supplies you had I could help you better. I asusme this is for a ghigh school project and you have limited supplies.

First of all, dont worry about the speed. Unless your dropping the egg from something higher than a 1 or 2 story building anything you make to slow it down may just complicate things more than its worth.

What you want to focus on is protecting that little egg. Triangles and and honeycomb designs make great shock absortion. When I made one of these my design was like so: egg, which was put in a paper container filled with cotton, then I built a hollow trangle out of sturdy paper. I suspendended the egg insides its cocoon inside this triangle with rubber bands(the rubber band thing wasnt really worth it but seemed like a good i dea at the time. Then I built a popsicle stick exoskeleton around this triangle and made really weak toothpicks stick straight out all along the exoskeleton. The idea is the toothpicks break on landing absorbing shock and the additional shock is sent through the exoskeleton so it dosent cumple the paper triangle.

Also you could try to add a parachute to you egg slower but make sure its balanced and will deploy in time. If your egg can be put in a container try making streamers instead. They wont slow down the egg as well as a parachute but they well balance it in the air quicker.

The last thing you want is the egg tumbling as it falls.

Hope some of that helps.

If you really want good a erfect example just look at the mars landing crafts. Thats pretty much the worlds most expensive egg drop.

Answer 3

Everyone is correct. But only Adicbatic seems to know what you were asking. I'll leave my earlier answer below (since I too was fooled and thought you were asking about slowing down the egg), but will add to what Adicbatic said.

You project is not to slow down the egg. Your project is to find a way to protect the egg upon impact with the ground -- controlled deceleration -- like air-bags in the automobile. You need to need to find things to protect the egg, like styrofoam "peanut", straws, foam. Usually everyone is asked to put the egg into an empty milk container, and you provide the protection.
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Old answer:

There are three forces involved. The first force is weight. Weight = mass x g-force. g on the surface of the earth is about 9.8m/s2. And maximum at that level. To reduce g, you can go higher, as Mt. Everest, or a high altitude balloon, or space itself. Or you go down to Death Valley. Or hypothetically, to the center of the earth.

The second force is air resistance or "drag". To increase drag, put a parachute on the egg. Drag is proportional to the surface area. By putting parachute on the egg, you increase the area. Drag is alsoproportional to the density of the fluid or media. "Mash potatoes" or water is much more dense than air. The drag also goes up as the square of the velocity so having a fast fan blowing air under the egg, as someone suggested, also would work.

The third force is buoyancy "force". It is negligible in air, but water or mash potatoes, it can be substantial. Drop the egg is salt water and it actually floats.

Answer 4

When we did ours, we were given some soda straws and an egg. Instructions were to drop the egg from a 12 foot height without breaking it.
Our genius in the group banded the egg with a few of the straws and made an 11 foot 10 inch rope of the rest. He then lowered the egg to about an inch off the ground and released his end of the rope.
There were cries of 'foul', but it was a legal move and we won the 'out of the box thinking' award for that exercise.

Good luck

Answer 5

If I'm correct, you can't attach anything to the egg?
The best way to slow the egg down is in stages. This experiment will show you how crash helmets and crash zones work, so pay attention!
The whole idea here is for you to think and not depend on other people to answer this question for you.
Who knows, you might come up with a better idea then the air bag, which was developed because of this experiment.

Answer 6

you elect a field and a few previous nylons, the field could desire to be sq. you chop back a hollow in the two factor of the field and thread a chunk of the nylon via one factor and tie it in a no longer on the exterior of the field, then placed the egg interior the nylon interior the field and thread the different factor for the duration of the hollow and pull until eventually the nylon is tight, tie that one in a knot besides. Tape the field up and additionally you're waiting to enable it fly! I observed this on invoice Nye the technology guy it looked as though it may artwork! good success!

Answer 7

For protection, the egg can be encased within a regular size quart container of milk or orange juice (original liquid removed). Any type of material may be used inside the container. Generally, parachute devices are usually discouraged initially but can be incorporated at the discretion of the instructor if desired.

Answer 8

you could drop it over a fan that is blowing upwards/
you could drop it through a differant substance (yeah, like mashed potatoes, right)
you could....drop it from a lower height. that would give it less time to attain maximum velocity.
you could get the lightest egg you can find.
are you allowed to alter the egg? you could inject a large needle into it, suck out the inside, and the egg would practically float down.
you could....maybe you could throw it sideways. the horizontal velocity might take away some of the vertical velocity, reducing the downward speed.

Answer 9

Parachute

Answer 10

if you want to slow it down, a parachute is the best way. The only problem with that is that if you test it outside it flys to the side if it is windy. If you want to prevent if from braking use bubble wrap it is the best thing to use. Use lots of it. Wrap it in lots of bubble wrap. I know because we just recently did this project in my engineering class!