MrBeast "Protect the Prize" Challenge

Abstract

MrBeast, the world's most famous YouTuber, has a series of challenge videos where he asks a contestant to protect some valuable prize - like a pile of money or an expensive car - from a series of attacks like explosions, giant fireballs launched from catapults, or even getting hit by a train! Contestants often have only 24 hours to build something to protect their prize, which presents a very interesting engineering challenge. Given limited time and access to materials, how can you best protect something fragile from different hazards? While you will not use a real race car or pile of money, in this science project you will try to design something to protect a "prize" from household hazards like fire, water, being dropped or stepped on, and maybe even hit with a hammer!

Summary

Areas of Science

Physics
Mechanical Engineering

Difficulty

Method

Engineering Design Process

Time Required

Short (2-5 days)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

Readily available

Cost

Low ($20 - $50)

Safety

Adult supervision and appropriate safety measures are required for this project. 

Credits

Ben Finio, PhD, Science Buddies

Science Buddies is committed to creating content authored by scientists and educators. Learn more about our process and how we use AI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJni4Nhsh3E

Objective

Design and build a device to protect a "prize" from a series of household hazards. 

Introduction

Check out this video where Jimmy Donaldson, aka YouTuber MrBeast, challenges a contestant named Blake to protect an expensive race car from a series of attacks - getting dropped from a crane, having other flaming cars dropped on it, and even being hit by a train! If Blake successfully protects the car, he gets to keep it - watch the video to find out if he wins. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKdjycj-7eE

You can find other similar videos on MrBeast's YouTube channel (note that technically, it's "MrBeast" with no space, not "Mr Beast" or "Mr. Beast"). Contestants often have unlimited money but a limited amount of time (usually 24 hours) to prepare for each challenge. 

While these videos feature over-the-top, big-budget stunts, they actually highlight something that engineers do all the time: design things to protect other things while taking constraints like time, size, or budget into account. Cars and cell phone cases are two great examples. Cars are designed to get people from one place to another, but they are also designed to protect the occupants in the event of a crash. However, it would not be practical for everyone to drive tanks around, and most people cannot afford million-dollar cars. Engineers must design cars that can keep people safe but are also a reasonable size, weight, and cost. Similarly, you could probably keep your cell phone very safe from damage by locking it inside a thick steel box. But the box would not fit in your pocket, would be too heavy to carry around, and you would have to open it each time you wanted to use your phone. When designing a cell phone case there is a tradeoff between portability and protecting the phone - a thicker, more protective case is also bulkier and less portable. 

You might not have the budget for trains and giant explosions, and the stunts in MrBeast's videos are not safe to try at home. However, for a science project, you can apply the same concepts to common household hazards. In this project, you will use a readily available object to represent your "prize." For example, a simple cube folded from a piece of paper (Figure 1) is vulnerable to fire, water, and being crushed. It is also very cheap, which makes it a much better target for your experiments than an expensive phone or car! 

Image Credit: Ben Finio / Science Buddies

Figure 1. Steps for making a paper cube.

Unlike the contestants in MrBeast's videos, however, you will get more than one chance to protect your prize. You will use the engineering design process to design and test your device. The engineering design process is iterative, meaning you can repeat some steps more than once. You can learn a lot by observing how things break, then improve them to work better the next time. In other words, it is OK to fail! Engineers use real-world testing like this all the time to help improve their designs. 

When designing something to protect your prize, you will need to think about the material properties of the different materials you use to build. A material that is good at protecting against one hazard might be no good against another. For example, a plastic bag is waterproof, but it will not do much to prevent your prize from getting crushed. A sturdy cardboard structure might protect your prize from getting stepped on, but it will catch on fire easily. You might have to think about how you can make use of multiple materials to protect your prize.

Are you up for the challenge? Try this project to find out!

Terms and Concepts

• Engineering design process
• Iterative
• Material properties

Questions

• Can you think of other examples besides cars and cell phone cases that are designed to protect something valuable?
• What are some household hazards/challenges you can create using materials that you have access to?
• What safety precautions are required for those hazards? Ask an adult for help.
• How could you design something to protect a valuable, fragile object from those hazards? 
• What materials would you use? Are some materials more vulnerable to certain hazards than others?

Materials and Equipment

This is an engineering design project, so the exact materials you need will depend on what you decide to build. Here are some suggestions:

• Identical target or "prize" objects to protect (at least 7), such as:
  • Cubes folded from paper
  • Small toy cars
  • Junk electronics from a recycling center
• At least three hazards to try and destroy your prize with. Adult supervision and proper safety precautions are required. Here are some suggestions:
  • A bucket of water to dump on it
  • A lighter to try and catch it on fire
  • Stepping on it (wear shoes so you do not hurt your feet!)
  • Dropping something heavy like a brick on it 
  • Hitting it with a hammer
  • Cutting it with a saw or knife
• Construction materials to build something to protect your target object from the hazards, such as:
  • Cardboard
  • Duct tape
  • Popsicle sticks
  • Plastic bags
  • Recycled metal or plastic (bottles, cans, etc.)
  • Aluminum foil
  • Packing materials (bubble wrap, foam peanuts, crinkled paper, etc.)
• A safe area to conduct your experiment (do not try catching things on fire near other flammable materials, dropping bricks or dumping water indoors where you might damage the floor, etc.)
• Optional: cell phone or camera

This project follows the Engineering Design Process. Confirm with your teacher if this is acceptable for your project, and review the steps before you begin.

1. Determine how you will conduct your hazard tests. They should be standardized so they are the same every time and conducted in the same order. For example (you can adjust these quantities if needed):
   1. Dumping 1 liter of water onto the prize.
   2. Holding a lighter up to it for 10 seconds.
   3. Dropping a brick on it from a height of 30 centimeters.
2. You should have at least seven prize objects. You will use them as follows:
   1. One undamaged prize to serve as a reference.
   2. Three prizes to test your hazards on individually, without any protection, so you can observe the different types of damage.
   3. Three or more prizes you can try to protect from all of the hazards.
3. It is tempting to just start building something right away, but hold on! There are some other steps you should take first when doing an engineering project. First, do some background research. How do other things (cars, cell phone cases, etc.) protect valuable objects from different hazards? What materials are they made from?
4. Make a list of the constraints and requirements for your design.
   1. The main requirement is that your design protect the prize object from all of the hazards. The prize should be intact and undamaged at the end.
   2. The constraints will depend on your situation, for example, how much time and money you have to complete the project, and what materials you have available. 
5. Try to brainstorm at least three different possible designs to protect your prize. 
   1. Make a sketch of each design and list what materials it will use.
   2. Try to rate how well each design will protect against each of your hazards.
   3. Compare the designs to each other and pick the one that you think will work best. 
6. Build a prototype of your chosen design.
7. You are almost ready to test! Create a data table like Table 1 so you can record observations from your tests. 
   1. Note: your testing may be destructive, meaning each prototype you build will get destroyed. This means you cannot do multiple trials with each design, but that is OK. The engineering design process is different from the scientific method. 
8. Test your first design with each of your hazards.
   1. Make sure to follow the same order and quantities you outlined in step 1. 
   2. After each hazard, record any observations in your data table.
   3. If you have a cell phone or camera available, use it to record video of your tests. That way you can re-watch the video to see what worked and what didn't work with your design.
9. Did your prize survive all three hazards? If so, great! If it seemed "too easy," then see the Variations for some additional ideas to make your challenge harder. If not, do not worry. Remember that the engineering design process is iterative, and failure is an important part of this process. It is ok to fail! 
10. If your prize did not survive, which hazard(s) caused the damage? Based on your observations, what could you do to improve your protective device?
11. Build another protective device and test again with a new (undamaged) prize object. Record your observations in your data table again. Did your protective device perform better this time?
12. As time and materials allow, keep iterating and improving your protective device. Can you win your own "challenge" and make your prize survive all of your hazards? If not, what would you do differently if you had more time or materials? See the Variations section for even more ideas.

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Design Iteration	Water	Fire	Crushing

Table 1. Example data table.

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Variations

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