Week 5

     In lab, we discussed the idea of science vs. engineering. We decided science is why things happen and engineering is how we solve science-based problems. We then moved on to experiment dropping an egg into a bowl filled with possible playground materials to discover what is safe and what is not. My group started with a layer of saran wrap on the bottom covered with 1/2 sand then 1/2 straw.

    We found that there was too much bounce from 1 meter and it would not be safe enough. 



    We then replaced the straw with foam pellets to prevent bounce. 


    Once we found that the bounce was reduced, we tried the egg. Since the egg weighed less than the golf ball we were experimenting with, we decided to create an indent in the pellets to keep the egg from bouncing or rolling out. 


    Since this worked, we started brainstorming how we could make it safe for a 2 meter drop. We decided to take out some sand and add more foam pellets. We ended up with the same layer of saran wrap covered with 1/3 sand then 2/3 foam pellets. 


    These were our first two attempts. After each one, we made more of an indent in the foam pellets to keep the egg from rolling out. 

       We then took out a small handful of foam pellets and increased the indent to try to catch the egg better. Here were our results. 

    Our findings were that there must be a dense but soft material underneath a soft and light layer. The sand was the soft dense material and the foam pellet layer was soft and light, catching the fall. 

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