Egg Drop
For this we were tasked with creating a contraption that would be able to be used as an escape module for our egg, that would be inside our rocket. During planning stages, we decided that we would create a hexagonal box, out of cardboard. We would then put marshmallows inside of our box, which would be placed in the bottom and top, with our egg in the middle. We decided that we would use cardboard as our box so that we could alter the size to fit an egg and marshmallows, just for the initial testing. We then secured the bottom on the box, and connected the top to the parachute.We then planned on using string to connect the top of our box and parachute to the box itself. However, before testing we realized this was not secure enough, and had to improvise by using tape. We chose to use marshmallows as padding for our egg so that the impact the ground would have on the egg would be reduced. We were confident in this theory from empirical data, as well as an experiment that we found online. The people who conducted this same experiment with their children found that marshmallows worked when dropping an egg, and trying to get it not to crack. When reflecting on the data they gathered, they stated "The marshmallows in the box without a parachute were dented and bent from absorbing the collision, but the egg was secure." After this prototype was made, we went to test it on the bleachers of the football field.
When we tested our contraption, we discovered that the egg fortunately remained unharmed, due to the cushioning from the marshmallows. We also discovered that our parachute was small and didn't work the way we wanted it to, and was unable to help our contraption glide down as smoothly as we wanted to. In addition, we found that our cardboard probably added too much weight, and therefore further increased impact. When we went to revise our design, we decided to find or create a new parachute, that would be larger in size. We also redesigned the tube holding the egg so that it was no longer hexagonal and made out of cardboard, but rather a 2.75" tube that we shrunk the diameter of.
