Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello!
Could you please help me with materials and design ideas for a bouncing "egg-drop: container?

I have to make a bouncing "egg-drop" container made with springs.
The container will be dropped from 1.0m to the floor and the container must protect a uncooked egg while achieving the largest number of clear bounces.

Protecting the egg part is fairly easy. What I need would be good cushioning and shock absorbing materials such as bubble wrap, sponges, rubber sheeting, etc. However, I don't know what kind of design would make the container to bounce most effectively.

Please help!

The really difficult part is making it bounce on a specific, small area of surface (where it is dropped on at first, not boucing off to other random areas)...

idk if this would actually work, but it's worth a try:

if you wrap the egg first in a few layers of bubble wrap, or a cusion foamy material

then sqeeze this into a deflated balloon
then inflate to balloon to a medium size (not too small or it won't bounce enough, and not too big or the egg will move around too much inside of it and could cause it to break)

hope this helps

LibbyB wrote:idk if this would actually work, but it's worth a try:

if you wrap the egg first in a few layers of bubble wrap, or a cusion foamy material

then sqeeze this into a deflated balloon
then inflate to balloon to a medium size (not too small or it won't bounce enough, and not too big or the egg will move around too much inside of it and could cause it to break)

hope this helps

I really appreciate and love your ideas, but I MUST use springs as one of the materials for the container... This is why it's so hard to make it...

Thank you very much though!

hmmm thats tough,

maybe if you found some very light and easily bendable wire to coil into springs on your own just by wrapping it around a thick marker

and then just simply attach these all around the outside of your protective layer

LibbyB wrote:hmmm thats tough,

maybe if you found some very light and easily bendable wire to coil into springs on your own just by wrapping it around a thick marker

and then just simply attach these all around the outside of your protective layer

I was thinking of buying soft springs and attach them to the protective layer of the container. I actually went to few stores and I could not find any soft springs... They were too stiff to use and they were very expensive too!

I think I will use your idea for the springs. I would need a lot of them attached to the protective layer, so the container would not bounce off to the other sides.

Thank you again for your great ideas!