II. EGG DROP

2009 rules

A. Objective The objective of this event is to prepare an egg containment chamber that will preserve the egg's unbroken state during and after being dropped from the roof of the physics building onto a cement surface at ground level.

B. Apparatus

1. Each team of four members may have two (2) entries in this event.

2. Each team will design and construct containment chambers on site during the morning and leave them to be dropped at 12:30 pm by a merry band of judges. Each chamber must have the following characteristics:

• a. maximum weight of 2.5 Newtons (without egg passengers)
• b. be made of masking tape and copy paper that will be supplied on site;
• c. the paper and tape may not be altered chemically
• d. the eggs may not be coated or otherwise altered except by Newton's Laws.
• e. Must transport 2 eggs at the same time.
• f. The University will provide the eggs, paper, and masking tape.
• g. Each team must provide other necessary items, such as scissors, rulers, laser levelers, etc.

C. The Competition

1. For each team's chambers, 2 Grade A medium chicken eggs will be supplied. The dropping chambers must be built on site, with eggs added after the chambers have been weighed. Completed and loaded chambers will be left with the judges for the 12:30 drop.

2. Each team will have an assigned half hour during which to build chambers.

3. The actual drop will be conducted as follows:

• a. containment chambers will be dropped from the same height, the window of a fourth floor stairwell landing in the Physics Building, by the merry judges.
• b. onto the landing area, which will be the cement surface of the patio, adjacent to the Physics lecture halls, below the drop point;
• c. the packages must be opened and the eggs immediately inspected for their physical state; and
• d. any distribution of the package and its contents over the landing area or on spectators must be cleaned up by the team.

D. Judging and Scoring

1. The Judges will monitor all the procedures listed above.

2. The least massive containment chamber which preserves the natural physical state of the passengers will be the winner.

3. The least massive containment chamber will be awarded the highest Team Score of 40 points. Containment chambers with greater mass will be awarded lower Team Scores in order (40, 39, 38, etc.) of the relative mass of these chambers. Teams will receive a Team Score of 5 points for participating in the competition witha credible entry, in the opinion of the judges. Teams with no entry will receive 0 Team points.

4. If both chambers survive, the better of the two will count.