My daughter came home from school today having been set a challenge for science. challenge is to be able to throw an egg of a balcony at school and have it land safely without breaking. So, with all good intentions, we set about making a parachute out of some light weight material and a pouch to suspend below it out of some bubble wrap and string ( in true blue peter style). Anyway, Hubby arrives home from work and asks "what are you 2 doing" explained to him everything and you will never guess what his suggestion was!!! :D I have been laughing for most of the evening, maybe I have a warped sense of humour, his suggestion was to "put the egg back where it came from and launch the chicken from the balcony" Didnt know Hubby could be so funny :D Sarah anybody else got any suggestions !!!!! :D

Hi
That is funny, I have a suggestion but I don't know if it will work.
Well........................ You didn't say what form the egg has to be in when your daughter has to make it fly so howabout this.......... break open the egg and fry it, let your daughter take it to school and then all she has to do is take the fried egg out of her bag and throw it out the window like a frisbee. That way she is making an egg fly she has just altered the state of it - which is rather scientific for a science project as she has kind of changed it from a liquid mass to a solid one as well!
Good Luck
Van

Oops sorry I just read the bit about the egg not breaking, maybe my idea won't work!
Van

Your hubby's not far wrong.

You wait for the egg to hatch, then after a while you put the chick on the windowsill and it flies off on it's own.

What could be simpler!!!!!

Norm

Or get a Border Collie to gently hold the egg in it's mouth and then leap from the (not too high I hope) window!!
The trusty Border will land safely and the egg will be unscathed.

Border can eat the egg if she wishes afterwards.

Norm

Oooooooooh, i KNEW staying up all hours of the night and watching schools programs would come in handy. Errrrr, i know i have seen this one, but i kinda forget now!

I think the parachute is the way to go, BUT, you need better shock absorbancy for the impact part of it.

Just wrapping it in something cushioney probably wont work, cos the shock of the impact will carry through the wrapping, and into the egg itself.

What about a 'crumple zone'? Put the egg inside something cushioney, errrrr, stiff foam like sofa cushions are made of, then build it a saftey cage around the outside of the foam, leaving a fair sized gap for the cage to crumple into, without damaging the egg. Errrr, try art pipe cleaners, or the cardboard art straws, or even plastic drinking straws.

Em

Have a look at the links here [link http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=egg+drop+competition]Egg Drop Competition[/link]

:)

Melody

Thanks all, Ok have had some good ideas now. the parachute we made works a treat! So all I need to work on now is somesort of "nest" that will withstand impact, what about "chicken wire" will that do do you think? have got loads of that down the garage. or will that make it to heavy do you think! Have to go buy some pipe cleaners and have a go with them. I do more homework these days than I ever did when I was at school :D thanks for all your help :) Sarah

What about egg boxes in sevearl layesr made into a cage to absorb extra impact.

What about using a weighted helium balloon so it floats down gently. Aren't eggs harder to crack if they are upright? I know you can't crush one in your hands if its upright but you can very easily if its sideways.
Lara x

Aren't teachers cruel they should know by now that parents always end up doing this kind of stuff, when it's sent home for the kids!! I remember all the things i used to have my mum doing.

Oh what good ideas you are all having :D must admit I have had fun doing this bit of homework :D I have spent all afternoon constructing a sort of cage out of straws woven together, looks quite good even if I do say so myself (feeling quite proud) tomorrow is launch day so I will let you all know how we got on :D I mean how my daughter got on :D I think I may even try some of your ideas with my daughter at home and see if any of them work too (getting carried away now) :D thanks to you all. Sarah

Just one suggestion. boil the experimental eggs, thenif the shells crack then the eggs can still be used for a salad or egg mayo!

awwwww brainless....I wanted to say that!!:p :p.

Great suggestion - don't do it though because it will change the weight distribution of the egg.
Putting two slots of an egg carton together sounds like a great idea!

Wendy

what about immersing it in water? would that work?

Ooooh I'll see what I can do for you.
As I work for a management college and this task is set as a team building exercise.
With only certain allowed 'ingredients' (I can't think of the correct terminology at this time
in the morning)
:D We often get to see the eggs floating or should I say mostly dive bombing to
a nasty cracked end result. As they use the two spiral staircases outside our offices.
However I think I've seen two that did make it but can't remember how they did it....
I should pay more attention :D

If you throw an raw egg over a house, it will not break if it lands on graa - don't know why, but we have tried it - the hardest part was throwing it over the house!

Good luck

Hayley

Hi All, just to let you know that all went very well and my daughter came joint first with another pupil. parachute that we ( I :) ) made worked perfectly and the egg landed cushioned in its bubble wrap encased in its cage of drinking straws perfectly :D we are going to experiment at home with some of your ideas just for fun, keep you posted :D thanks to all. Sarah

Well done - the CD crew remain undefeated!
:)

just gotta say, I was hooked to all this egg dropping lark :-) ...... Guys, you all did brilliantly !!! lol :-) kept me entertained all the way thru'
:-)