Egg Crash!

Designing a Collision Safety Device
Mr. Bucci - Technology 8
Pomona Middle School
www.bucciteacher.com

Crash test Question

• How do people survive major collisions?

Purpose

• To design, build, test and evaluate a “safety device” to protect an egg during a collision with a hard surface
• To describe a collision in terms of changing momentum, impulse, impact force, and impact time

Materials needed

For each group of two or three students:

• 1 piece of cardboard
• 3 pieces of news paper
• 20 pellets of Styrofoam
• 2 rubber bands
• 1 piece of string 3’feet
• 1 zip lock bag

Discussion

How do people survive major vehicle collisions? Scientists and engineers apply the laws of physics to reduce damage to both cars and passengers.  During this activity, you will work in groups to design, build, test and evaluate a ‘collision safety device’ to protect a raw egg during a collision with a hard surface.  Hopefully this process will help you discover the physics underlying some of the “Eggcellent” safety devices in a car!

Procedure

Using no more than a piece of cardboard, 3 pieces of newspaper, 20 pellets of Styrofoam, 2 rubber bands, 1 piece of string a 1 zip lock bag, follow the parameters listed on the back of this sheet, design, build, and test a “collision safety device” that will protect an egg when dropped from ever increasing heights.

Resources

• Hot Glue Gun
• Scissors
• Elmer’s Glue

Vocabulary

Inertia: property of an object to resist any change in its state of motion
 

Mass: quantity of matter in an object; measure of an object’s inertia
 

Impulse: product of force and time interval during which the force acts; impulse equals change in momentum
 

Impact: qualitative term for force
 

Momentum: the product of the mass and the velocity of an object
 

Velocity: the speed of an object and its direction of motion
 

Acceleration: the rate at which velocity is changing

EGG “Collision Safety Device” Parameters

1. Report to the teacher the amount of materials used to build your safety device.  In the event of a tie, the device constructed with the fewest materials and weighs less will be declared the superior safety device.
2. Collision Safety Devices must be free standing.  Teams cannot support their devices by holding them or taping them to another structure.
3. Nothing may be attached to the egg.
4. Scissors may not be part of the Collision Safety Device.
5. Eggs will be dropped by a member of the Device’s design team.
6. Eggs will be inspected before and after each drop and must not show any cracks
   - Eggs that survive the initial impact but roll out of the device and break are eliminated.
   - Teams that break their egg by accident or carelessness are eliminated and will receive a grade no higher that a 75.
7. In order to simulate car collisions with greater momentum the eggs will be dropped from successively greater heights (3’feet 6’feet 9’feet 12’feet)

Group Analysis

1. Draw a large diagram of your Collision Safety Device in the space below.

2. Describe your team’s Collision Safety Device, the reasoning behind your design, and its performance during the various collisions.  Refer to your diagram.  _________________________________________________________________________________
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Crash Questions

1. Explain how your Collision Safety Device is similar to an airbag in preventing injuries.  Use the terms momentum impulse, impact force, and impact time in your response.

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Self Evaluation

1. What was your contribution to the group?
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2. Were you satisfied with the results of your Egg Crash Safety Device?
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3. If you could build Egg Crash safety Device again would you change anything? If yes what would it be?
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