DrPizza
Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Have to get the right type of foam though. Too "bouncy" and the egg bounces up and out of the foam, onto the floor.
Seems to me the egg-drop has two issues:
1. Assuring uniform distribution of force around the "bottom" of the eggshell.
2. Reducing the g-loading that the egg sees.
For (1), I'd guess that the hot ticket would be spray foam from Home Depot, perhaps the Latex version. Hold the egg in your container, spray foam around it, and you have an excellent, form-fitting, force-distributing holder. If the judges don't like foam sticking to the egg after the event, wrap the egg in plastic wrap first.
For (2), I'd suggest using the "crush zone" principle. The greater the distance that it takes to slow down, the smaller the acceleration experienced. Use a rocket shape with trailing fins to keep the nose pointed at the ground. Place the egg just in front of the center of pressure so the rocket is stable. Fill the front half of the rocket with a crushable, non-rebounding material - tissue paper, perhaps water contained within a thin layer of plastic designed to burst on impact, even cardboard folded appropriately. The device should fall, crush, stop, and fall over - no rebounding! You will probably have to do some experimentation to get the right characteristics out of whatever material you use, but it shouldn't be difficult.
1. Assuring uniform distribution of force around the "bottom" of the eggshell.
2. Reducing the g-loading that the egg sees.
For (1), I'd guess that the hot ticket would be spray foam from Home Depot, perhaps the Latex version. Hold the egg in your container, spray foam around it, and you have an excellent, form-fitting, force-distributing holder. If the judges don't like foam sticking to the egg after the event, wrap the egg in plastic wrap first.
For (2), I'd suggest using the "crush zone" principle. The greater the distance that it takes to slow down, the smaller the acceleration experienced. Use a rocket shape with trailing fins to keep the nose pointed at the ground. Place the egg just in front of the center of pressure so the rocket is stable. Fill the front half of the rocket with a crushable, non-rebounding material - tissue paper, perhaps water contained within a thin layer of plastic designed to burst on impact, even cardboard folded appropriately. The device should fall, crush, stop, and fall over - no rebounding! You will probably have to do some experimentation to get the right characteristics out of whatever material you use, but it shouldn't be difficult.
But who adds the pennies to the barge? The pennies will have to be added carefully to distribute the load as equally.
Also, pennies from different years have different masses. A penny from the 1960's or 1970's has significantly more mass than those made in the 1990's and 2000's. If each team gets to do their own, they should find the newest pennies and add those first.
can't you just take some airbags used for packaging and duct-tape them around the egg, you could probably play soccer with it afterwords
As the first question is formulated it does not say the vehicle has to travel in a straight line, nor does the mouse or the trap have to be part of it.
So you could make a tiny little electric car, which travels in a circle around the mousetrap. The mousetrap is the spring type, but with a softened spring as to not kill or critically injur the mouse. But... it does have 2 electrodes which pierce the mouse's skin when it gets caught. As the muscles in the mouse generate a tiny bit of electricity you might be able to power a tiny electric vehicle with it, AS LONG AS THE MOUSE LIVES. Given the lack of food or drink it will get weakened and die, but it will take hours to days maybe.
Car could be 'normal' electric powered, or it could travel based on electromagnets around the track or something.
Edit: And you could make a track of magnets as to eliminate friction.
So you could make a tiny little electric car, which travels in a circle around the mousetrap. The mousetrap is the spring type, but with a softened spring as to not kill or critically injur the mouse. But... it does have 2 electrodes which pierce the mouse's skin when it gets caught. As the muscles in the mouse generate a tiny bit of electricity you might be able to power a tiny electric vehicle with it, AS LONG AS THE MOUSE LIVES. Given the lack of food or drink it will get weakened and die, but it will take hours to days maybe.
Car could be 'normal' electric powered, or it could travel based on electromagnets around the track or something.
Edit: And you could make a track of magnets as to eliminate friction.
TankGuys
Golden Member
- Jun 3, 2005
- 1,080
- 0
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My 2 biggest hints for your mouse-trap car:
1.) Slow is good. Jack rabit starts are very inefficient, energy transfer wise.
2.) Slow is good yet again. Air resistance is proportional to speed squared, if you slow your speed in half, you cut your wind resistance to 1/4. Every little bit helps.
1.) Slow is good. Jack rabit starts are very inefficient, energy transfer wise.
2.) Slow is good yet again. Air resistance is proportional to speed squared, if you slow your speed in half, you cut your wind resistance to 1/4. Every little bit helps.
air resistance goes from a linear dependence to an exponential dependence around 85km/h, your nowhere near that so air resistance isn't a big deal
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