Egg Toss
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| Directions: | Have four students hold the sheet at each corner. Have the students closest to you kneel so the sheet is sloped towards you (and provides you with a large target). From a distance of 15 feet (or further) hurl the egg towards the sheet. Make sure you hit the sheet. |
| Safety Concerns: | Make sure that students are wearing safety glasses. |
| Questions: | Predict what will happen to this raw egg when I throw it into the sheet. What did you observe as the egg hit the sheet? How can you explain the fact that the egg did not break? |
| Concepts: | This demonstration is a classic Newtonian physics. We know that when an object is put into motion that it stays in motion until an outside force acts against it. The egg is put into motion. It wants to stay in motion but the sheet acts as an outside force to stop it. The key question is how "quickly" is the egg stopped? The sheet, unlike a brick wall, has some give to it. So the egg is cushioned as it hits the sheet. The sheet actually is put into motion and energy is transferred from the eggs motion to the motion of the sheet. This actually spreads the force out over a long time. Think of it this way. If someone was to hit you in the nose with their fist, would you want the back of your head resting against a wall? No! You would want to actually move with the punch to "absorb" it. This is the physics behind air bags and crumple zones in cars. |