Egg drop without breaking

[jlynn]

I need to make a contraption to put an egg in and drop from roof without egg breaking; Can use any materials on inside or outside of container except for use styrofoam, bubble wrap, no projections from container, no parachutes, peanut butter.  Any ideas?  Can't be larger than 25 cm on any side. 

[gen2]

Depends how high the roof is and what surface it will land on.  Grass or concrete?

I would suggest a watertight container. Add salt if necessary to the water to get neutral buoyancy for the egg.  Close the container under water so that no air is included and drop from a great height.  If the container is strong enough to surve, then the egg should too.

[gen2]

oops!  survive, not surve of course.

[crgb14]

You could try something like hairgel with a small piece of sponge at the bottom. obviously you'd need to drop it so that it lands the right way up.

[ll_billym]

Freeze the egg in a block of ice. Do I win �5 ?

[Hamish]

You need something wich will absorbe the energy of the impact. ie some structure wich will crush as it hits the ground. This means that the structer will be dammaged and not the egg.

Is this homework?

[tell-me-more]

I can say with absolute certainty, because I've tried it myself, that the humble egg is actually able to absorb the energy of the impact itself, due to it's structure and the air gap (at least I think those are the parts). The roof must be high enough though, and I suggest if allowed, you actually launch it upwards in an arc. The egg always lands fat end down (in much the same way that shuttlecocks always land the same way) and in principle it should be able to survive on flat concrete. In practice, I've only ever made it work on grass. According to New Scientist, the egg needs to be thrown up to the height of a double decker bus, so about five years ago, we threw a load of eggs over a double-decker bus on to some grass. About three-quarters of them survived. Jlynn, I would love you to have a go after you've practised to perfection beforehand. I'm sure it would stimulate the curiosity of your classmates. I like gen and billy's ideas too. Why not try them all?

[Essendon_93]

Why dont u lay honey on the bottom of the cotainer it will coshin it.

[sidaknee]

Well, you know those funny little paperclip box, put an egg in one of those then jam pack it with cotton balls and it shouldn't break.

Or you could just swallow it whole and it should break :)

[nobody12]

how bout just making a parachute? just get some string and paper or tissue, then just tape the ends together with the egg? i never really tried it before but it's worth a try!