An egg aloft the Ground

[fernanr5]

Good Morning Dears,
I have a project in which an egg must aloft off the ground for exactly 2 minutes ± 5 seconds and return safely to the ground with any interference (no hand controlled devices, etc… everything must be automated). I should not spend more than $25 in this project. Please, could someone give me some ideas?
Thanks a lot.

[Amber_MIT]

Hi fernanr5,

Sorry we did not get to your question in time. This is a pretty open ended project/question so it is tougher for the experts to answer. Not to mention it is tough to help when the project is due the next day ! I'm going to get one of the moderators to move your question to the physical science forum in case you need more help. This forum (Advanced Science Competitions) is not the best place for this kind of question. Good luck!

[edneu3]

I'd like to help, but I don't completely understand your situation.

When you say the egg must be "aloft off the ground" does that mean nothing can be touching it? Or can it be attached to something? Is there a limit on how far off the ground it must be?

Does the egg need to start this period of 2 minutes on the ground and then return to it? When you say "return safely", do you mean it cannot break?

If you can provide any other details, we'll do our best to give you some ideas.

[fernanr5]

Hi dears,

Thanks for trying to help me. Let me explain my project again.

The egg must aloft off the ground for exactly 2minutes ± 5 seconds. That is, it starts from the ground or from any device and the total flight time is 2 minutes. There is no requirement about the height and the egg cannot break. I cannot use hand controlled devices. Everything must be automated. No rockets are allowed.

I hope someone can help me.

Thanks.

[edneu3]

OK. So as I understand it, the mechanism that causes the egg to be "aloft" cannot be in contact with the ground, that is it my be in "flight", as you have posted. As no rockets are allowed, that implies the egg must be held aloft by some device similar to an airplane, or perhaps a balloon.

I used to build model airplanes. I know it would take a reasonable large one to carry the weight of an egg. While operating an airplane that size via remote control is simple, automating the take-off and landing is not so simple.

I'm thinking a helium filled balloon is what you need to consider. You would need to attach some sort of clock driven device that lets the helium out - slowly - near the end of the 2-minute period so that is gently lowers back to the ground, leaving the egg intact.

You could easily adjust the amount of gas in the balloon so you could control how high it goes after take-off. You could use a simple mechanical cooking timer, the kind that strikes a bell when time is up. You could use that striking mechanism to puncture a tiny hole in a membrane that slowly allows the gas of the balloon to escape.

These are just ideas. You should spend some time thinking about them. I know you can come up with a better solution.

Have fun.

[fernanr5]

Thank you so much.

I really appreciated your help.

[sciencebuddy]

Are there any more rules or restrictions?

I think the helium balloon can work, but it depends on what kind of striking mechanism you find. Trying to get the air to release slowly may be difficult depending on how large the striking mechanism is.

Keeping that in mind, are you allowed to protect the egg in anyway, in case the landing isn't soft? Then you could simply cushion the egg (tissues, some sort of container, etc.).