Egg Drop Lab

1. Purpose:
This lab is designed to give us a better understanding of linear motion. The goal of the lab is to drop an egg on Mr. Forrest’s head while he is in motion. This requires us to calculate an interception point with both a constant velocity and accelerating velocity.

2. Set Up:
To set up this lab we stood on top of the bleachers while Mr. Forrest walked beneath them at a constant velocity. He walked in an area directly below us so we could attempt to drop an egg on his head. The distance from the bleachers to the ground was 9.2 Meters.

3. Data:
Forrest’s Height = 1.77 mTime of Forrest walking 10 m = 5.8 s Bleachers Height = 9.2 mEgg Acceleration (Gravity) = 9.8 m/s2 Drop Distance = 7.43 m
4. Calculations:
Egg Drop Time:
Δx = 1/2(a)(Δt)2
7.43m = 1/2(9.8m/s2)(Δt)2
Δt = 1.23s
Mr. Forrest’s Speed:
v = Δx/Δt
v = 10m/5.8s
v = 1.7m/s

Distance of Forrest From Collision Point (at time of drop): Δx = v(Δt)
Δx = 1.7m/s(1.23s)
Δx = 2.1m

5. Analysis and Results:
When doing the calculations we first found how long it would take for the egg to fall to Mr. Forrest’s head by subtracting his height from the height of the bleachers. We then calculated the falling time of the egg by using gravity. This time was then multiplied by Mr. Forrest’s velocity to find Mr. Forrest’s the distance from the interception point at the time of the egg’s release. When we dropped the egg we partially hit Mr. Forrest but not directly. All of our data seemed accurate but uncertainty seemed to be the reason we missed. It was very difficult to drop the egg directly over the predicted interception point especially with wind involved. We may have been able to more accurately aim for the point of impact by hanging down a tape measure from the bleachers and labeling the point directly below. Another possible problem is inconsistency in Mr. Forrest’s speed since it is very difficult to walk at an exactly constant velocity.