Hi Nicole
As you've probably found out by now, asking for help with only a day or two before project due dates isn't a good way to relieve stress
There's only limited opportunity to try different approaches, ask questions, etc.
I'll do what I can based on what you tell us but at this point, there's no guarantees that I understand the problem correctly.
- If the problem is to drop a raw egg from bleachers, then some means has be figured out so that the landing impact doesn't break the egg. If you're limited to masking tape and plastic straw, then you have to be ingenious. I assume "Plastic straw" is the fluffy plastic stuff that's used, for example, in Easter egg baskets to hold candy. I could be wrong, however.
- A good starting point, if it's allowed that is, is to first wrap the egg with masking tape. This has the effect of spreading out impact loads and also restraining the egg shell so that it's less likely to fracture.
- Having wrapped the egg with tape, it seems that a reasonable course of action, which perhaps you've tried, is to surround the egg in a sphere of the plastic straw. In effect, you're "cocooning" the fragile egg with a shock absorbing outer layer. Some of the NASA Mars Landers achieve the same effect by using inflatable air bags to absorb the landing loads - perhaps you've seen NASA videos depicting this effect.
- A key question, and one that's worth some testing and evaluation if you have the time, is to figure out how much plastic straw is needed to protect the egg. If allowed, I'd use as much plastic straw as possible, held together with masking tape. I'd figure that at least a 6-10 inches diameter plastic "ball" would do but that's just a guess on my part. I don't know, for example, the drop distance from the bleachers.
- Another advantage of a bigger plastic straw "cocoon ball" is that it would fall slower due to increased drag.
And the larger size ball offers more protection than a smaller ball. If you were able to create a ball that's 12" in diameter, with the egg snugly contained in the center so that it couldn't fall out, I think that would be a pretty good approach but that's a lot of straw! In this case and based on my understanding of the problem (which may not be 100% right), "size matters" where bigger is better.
- A challenging question that you may want to think over and discuss with your daughter: as the egg size is pretty well known, and so is its weight, then a good problem to think over is how to determine the minimum amount of plastic straw and tape required to have the egg survive from its bleacher drop. This type of problem solving can be labelled as "optimization" where you have to figure out the minimum resources solution to a pre-defined problem.
I hope this helps and good luck!
Peter Young
