Smashing eggs
24 November 2004
Can you drop an egg from a height of 2 metres without breaking it? A French organisation called La main à la pâte' challenged schools worldwide to take part in an egg-dropping contest last month.
Primary schools from Brazil, Chile, Columbia, France, Morocco, Serbia and Spain accepted the challenge and ‘met’ on 4 November via the internet to test their experiments together.
The children, aged 9 to 11, had to find ways of protecting the egg during its 2 metre fall, slowing its descent and ensuring that it landed close to the target. They were all give the same materials to use:
- 4 sheets of A4 paper
- 25 plastic straws
- 25 wooden sticks
- 150 cm of string
- 150 cm of adhesive tape
- five elastic bands
- one pair of scissors
- one egg of between 55 to 60 g.
Each school was given 2 minutes to present their experiments and 30 minutes to build it from scratch. After each team had launched their egg, they had one minute to present their results.
The jury from ESA and the Espace des Sciences de Paris awarded prizes for the best experiment, the most original, the fastest descent without breaking the egg, the most precise landing and the best written description of the experiment.
Both winners and losers had fun taking part and working with other schools all over the world via the Internet.
