Engineering Projects #2

Bryan, Block A

One entertaining project this year was trying to build a structure that would protect an egg from cracking or breaking completely when dropped from about a twenty five foot ledge. It sounds simple, but the materials were far from reliable. We had a small paper cup, some rubber bands, maybe about ten plastic straws, some toothpicks, some popsicle sticks and the one egg that had to fit inside our structure safely and be able to withstand the free fall of twenty five foot drop straight onto a hard surface. There were some crazy designs. Some pocked holes in the cup and laid the straws straight across to secure the egg. Another group cut up the straws and used them as cushioning around the egg to withstand the blow of the fall. My design was to put the straws all in a circle, and then tie the bottom with the two rubber bands forming almost a cone shape. Then we could just place the egg inside the cone, and with the cup and straws protecting the egg, hopefully it would land safely. But the egg gods had other ideas. Once our contraption was dropped, I saw a fatal end to our egg approaching. In an instance, our egg was completely shattered on the first floor of Pilalas where there now laid a tarp covered in egg fragments, and yolk of course. If I did this project over again, I would do what some other groups did, which was put the egg in the middle of the cup and put straws and sticks through the cup to securely hold the egg in the cup. From this project I would have to say I learned how not to secure an egg in a cup with straws and sticks and have it land safely from a free fall. This was just one of many creative projects we did this year in engineering.