Egg Crash Project Research Paper

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Egg Crash Project Paper
The purpose of this project was to understand the forces, momentum, and energy a contraption would experience during an impact from a pendulum at 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25mph. The project was required to hold and protect 2 raw large Grade A eggs from each pendulum impact respectively.
My project consisted of a simple set of materials: a 30cm by 20cm cardboard box, a toilet paper roll, industrial glue, 2 rubber bands, 4 water bottles, 2 Oreo cookie trays, packaging tape, and lead shielding sheets. The lead sheet was flattened, form-fitted and glued on the inner bottom of the cardboard box. This was done in order to provide the box a low center of gravity and to meet the minimum mass of 1 kg. Glued to the lead sheet was …show more content…

For each test, I was required to calculate the height of the pendulum required in order for it to have the same mass, or the quantity of matter affected by the external force of gravity, as my project. To find the height, it required understanding the process of the pendulum hitting my project step by step. As the pendulum is pulled back, it has its maximum potential energy, which is the energy possessed by a body by virtue of its position relative to other objects. When the pendulum is let go, it loses potential energy while gaining kinetic energy, or the energy that a body possesses by virtue of being in motion. At the bottom of the swing, kinetic energy of pendulum is the greatest because the change in potential energy equals the kinetic energy at the bottom of the swing. As the pendulum hits my project, there is an impulse, a force acting briefly on a body and producing a finite change of momentum, between the pendulum and project. As the pendulum hits my project, the project carries the momentum of the pendulum with it. By working in reverse order, the height of the pendulum required was

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