Do you remember having to build protective gear for eggs in your high school physics class, or even in one of the college competitions? You may have dropped the eggs from a window or catapulted them across the school yard, and you may have used straws, paper towels or cotton to brace them for impact. The goal was to learn about kinetic energy conversion and controlled collapse.
Some creative staffers at Fermilab used this age-old competition to get across the need for bicycle helmets as part of the laboratory's campaign to increase safety in the workplace as well as at home.
The egg drop experiment uses the same principle as a bicycle helmet or work hard hat: the helmet breaks on contact with the ground, dissipating the fall energy, but remains intact enough to still protect the skull.
See the Fermilab egg drop results below from safety committee member David Peterson, and see if you can beat the record.
Helmet Safety Egg Drop Results
Traffic Safety Subcommittee member and avid bicyclist David Peterson (left front) and bicyclist Jamieson Olsen help Legal Office General Counsel Gary Leonard design protective equipment for an egg during a demonstration Monday at Fermilab
Results
The Reckless Endangerment Award goes to Eric Mieland of ES&H whose helmetless egg did not even survive a 2 inch (5 cm) drop onto the table. This was our "calibration" standard.
3rd Place - Cedric Madison, 2' 6" (76 cm). A 3' 6" (107 cm) attempt was successful on the first bounce but the egg popped out of the cup and broke on the second bounce.
2nd Place - Gary Leonard, 5' 7" (170 cm). An attempt at 6' (183 cm) was not successful but the egg injury lawsuit is still pending. (Gary considers himself to have won 1st Place in the "Non-Technical" category.)
1st Place - Pier Oddone assisted by Vladimir Shiltsev, 6' 2" (188 cm) (or epsilon over one standard Vladimir). Pier used coins to keep the center of mass low in the Styrofoam cup, Vladimir picked the best looking egg and carefully positioned it in the foam padding. They wrapped the entire unit in food wrap to keep the egg from bouncing out. Impact broke the cup and sent the coins flying but the egg survived!
Congratulations to all!
