Vidad 1

Joei Vidad
Mrs. Demmert
February 3, 2015
Period 3
Egg-Stravagant Egg-Droppers Experiment
Sir Isaac Newton first presented his three laws of motion in 1688. Our 8th grade
class was given the opportunity of assembling egg-stravagant egg-droppers. This
project was to help us understand Newtons laws of motion in a more clear perspective.
Each of us were assigned this project with a basic set of rules. The droppers had a
limited size of 17x17 cm, and we were restricted from using any type of contraption that
acted as a parachute, creating air resistance. My egg survived its fall because of the
way I constructed my dropper.
Each student was only given about forty minutes to assemble their dropper and
was given a meter of duct tape and masking tape. My dropper consisted of a stuffed
animal, an old t-shirt, sliced bread, plastic jar, creamy peanut butter, and some rubber
bands. To start with, I emptied out the peanut butter jar and precisely placed the sliced
bread on the inside perimeter of the jar. The bread provided a thin bed of cushion for the
egg, decreasing the amount of force against the jar. Making sure the bread would not
fall over, I filled the jar up halfway with the thick peanut butter. After that, I delicately
placed the egg into the jar, and filled the rest of the empty areas with the remaining
peanut butter. Then, I softly dropped the bottom of the jar on the table several times,
assuring all of the peanut butter would slide down to the empty spots. Although the
thick, gooey substance would increase the mass of the dropper, it would also decrease

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the amount of energy placed onto the egg itself. I shut the jar tight and wrapped the
container with an old shirt using the rubber bands. For extra cushion, I beheaded the
stuffed animal and placed the sealed container into the body. The stuffed animals body
was the final layer of the dropper. The plush layer applied to Newtons third law: for
every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Since the stuffed animal would
cushion the fall, less force will be acted upon the dropper when it was released. The
droppers mass was measured to be the heaviest out of the whole grade with a mass of
1500 g and was exactly 17x17 cm.
Plenty of measurements were taken during this experiment in order for us to
complete our data. The mass of the individual dropper had a massive weight of 1500 g
while the egg itself only weighed approximately 5.93 g. The total mass of the dropper
with the egg inside it equaled 1.50593 kg (15.0593 N). I multiplied the mass by the
height and got a total of 81.93 J (Gravitational Potential Energy). The velocity of the
dropper while it was falling was 11.37 m/s. Its kinetic energy was 973.48 J. According to
both Appendix A and Appendix B, the heaviest droppers all had a great amount of
kinetic energy compared to the rest of the classes, because of the amount of mass
placed upon their dropper, it increased its kinetic energy and the drop time. Although, a
large amount of force was added to the dropper, the substance inside decreased the
amount of energy exerted onto the egg.
Kinetic energy is the amount of energy on a moving object. Similar to the other
three droppers in Appendix B, they all had high kinetic energy when they were dropped.
The substances with which they filled their droppers helped increase the mass of their
droppers, causing the speed of the falling object to increase. The high kinetic energy

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increased the amount of force exerted upon the egg, but the density of the substances
protecting the egg inside the dropper decreased the amount of energy placed onto the
egg. The peanut butter also held the egg in place. Newtons first law of motion states
that an object will remain in motion unless an unbalanced force acts upon it. If the
peanut butter was not there to hold the egg in place, the egg would have kept moving
down onto the concrete, causing it to crack. Newtons third law of motion says when one
object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts an equal and
opposite force on the first object. The dropper was protected in a thick layer layer of
teddy bear stuffing acting as a plush cushion. The cushion helped decrease the amount
of force given to the gym floor.
The way the dropper was built and designed helped increase the chances of the
egg surviving. Although the dropper was a success, there were a couple of ways to help
improve it. For example, I could have placed a slice of bread over the egg to decrease
the force the egg received when it hit the lid. I could have also tied the top of the lid to
secure it from breaking. This experiment helped me understand Newtons laws in a
more egg-citing way!

Works Cited
Appendix A. 27 Jan. 2015. Survival Graph. Blatchley Middle School, Sitka.
Appendix B. 28 Jan. 2015. Survival Graph. Blatchley Middle School, Sitka.