My Class Project: Egg Drop

So I am not sure if this should be here on the forums, and if not someone just please reply and I will take it off. But I was just going to get some of the fellow aviators on here opinions about what I should do for my physics egg drop project. We can use any materials, but it does have to dimensions of 1ftx1ftx1ft, although if it has a parachute, or something of the like, it can expand to be more than the specified dimensions, it just has the be able to compact down to that size. Also the egg has to be able to be easily taken in and out, so like I couldn't build the structure around it. I thought of possibly making some sort of a helicopter system to auto-rotate it down, or a parachute type system.
I figured I would throw this out there for any one who has any ideas, and if they wanted to throw them out. Thanks! :)

Rice Krispies make a good shock absorbent material.

I'd make a biplane (box kite with a tail) and fly it down.

1. Look at how NASA accomplished the same goal with the Mars rovers. 2. I had success when I was younger building a box within a box out of drinking straws with (lots of triangles) with the egg suspended in the middle of the boxes.Good luckDaniel

Ryan, we have an egg drop at the AirVenture Museum for our "Space Week," when hundreds of school kids come for a week of space related hands-on activities. They are given a small trash bag (very small such as the bathroom sized bags), four or eight (can't remember exactly) popcicle sticks, about the same number of straws, four feet or so of string, two sheets of 8.5"x11" paper, and about 2 feet of Scotch tape and another 2 feet of masking tape. In the five or so years I've been involved with this, by far the most successful designs have employed parachutes. I've only seen one successful autogyro type design, and I think it worked by sheer accident. I always tell the kids that the design that can create the most drag while in free fall will usually work best (parachute). The trick is rigging it to open immediately upon release, or rigging it so that it is open already when dropped. With the ability to use any materials available to you, I'd consider using some straws or even balsa wood to make a small "cage" for the egg to sit in with some bubblewrap or packing peanuts for cushion, then as big a parachute as you can make within the rules.

Then again, most likely everybody else will be thinking along the same lines, so I'd attempt the autogyro! :rollseyes:

Try a cylinder of Jello with the egg near the top of it. If you can lower it by parachute it should work well.
Or put it in deviled eggs and chocalate chip cookies. Then if it fails you can eat the cookies and eggs.

Popcorn in a paper bag. Simple and it works.

So I have been trying to go with the autogyro idea, the last 4 hours have not been the most successful. I have two different styles. I wider set of rotors that consist of 4 blades that spin over a fan, and a coaxial type that consist of 8 blades (4 on 2 Hubs). Guess I might just have to go for the boring parachute idea unless anyone else has any odd or different ideas that are simple that I might try to make before the night is up?

When my son had the egg drop project to do we built a collapsible tube structure. One cardboard mailing tube inside the other. The tubes must fit very close. we used a set that was meat for storing rolled drawings. With a series of holes along the length of the tube the air escape is reduced as the tubes collapse slowing the moving compartment as a shock absorber would. A balsa nose cone and a set of crossed dowels at the rear to prevent the capsule from damage after the stop completed the rig. it worked every time we dropped it. Never broke an egg.