Egg Drop By: Andrew Hartman

Big Question What material, cotton, bubble wrap, foam peanuts, wadded up newspaper, or nothing will protect a raw egg best when dropped from fifteen feet? I chose this question because when you send stuff that is fragile you will know how to protect it.

Hypothesis I think that bubble wrap will keep the egg from breaking the best. I think this because it is soft and all the little bubbles will give the egg cushion.

Interesting Facts Hard boiled eggs spin fast unlike raw eggs. There are 70 calories in an uncooked egg and 77 calories in a cooked egg. A hen can lay about 250 eggs per year. A fresh egg will sink in water, a stale one will float. A whole egg is about 3 tablespoons worth of liquid, the egg yolk measures about 1 tablespoon of liquid. Egg yolks are one of few foods that naturally contain Vitamin D.

Experiment Materials Step By Step - Cotton - Bubble wrap - Foam peanuts - Wadded up newspaper - High area (about fifteen feet) - A Ziploc bag - Five raw eggs Step By Step 1. Put cotton into the bag. Then put one raw egg inside the bag with cotton all around it. Go up to the high area that is about fifteen feet high. Drop the bag with the egg in it off the edge. Check and see if it broke and if so, how bad it broke.

Experiment 2. Repeat with the starred materials. 3. Then do the same thing except nothing to protect the egg. See how much the egg broke. 4. Observe your results and record the data. My control group is nothing in the bag to protect the egg. My variables are cotton, bubble wrap, foam peanuts, and wadded up newspaper.

Observation All materials protected the egg better than I thought. The one with nothing got crushed big time. Wadded up newspaper was also soft even though I thought was kind of rough and the egg would break. Even cotton was protecting the egg and it was not meant to protect fragile items in shipping.

Data I did a scale from one to five in how much the egg broke. One it was still in perfect condition and five it was crushed.

Analysis Of Data The experiment tested my hypothesis perfectly. I know that because when there was something to cushion the egg, the egg did not break.

Conclusion My hypothesis was right because it did not break with the bubble wrap but also didn’t break with wadded up newspaper, foam peanuts, or cotton. I would change the materials I used to cushion the egg with because it was a little bit boring because everything cushioned it well. One of my new questions is how the egg is designed so well that it doesn’t break super easy. Another is how in the world is the shell of an egg made inside the body of a chicken.

References http://didyouknow.org/eggs.htm http://topnews.in/healthcare/sites/default/files/eggs.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3621/3493669727_d6b185c2fb.jpg http://www.cookies-in-motion.com/images/j0177947.jpg http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&um=1&q=eggs&sa=N&start=40&ndsp=20 http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/07/egg5.jpg http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/4519169/eggs006-main_Full.jpg http://blog.khymos.org/wp-content/2009/04/egg-tray.jpg http://images.teamsugar.com/files/upl2/1/15259/15_2009/765b500bf9290c1a_eggs.preview.jpg http://www.vegansoapbox.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/chicks-eggs.jpg http://www.skagitriverranch.com/pictures/eggs-.jpg