Egg Drop

I thoroughly enjoyed the designing, building, and testing of our egg container. The process started out with a major miscommunication during my first meeting with Mehmet. I had a vision of a container attached to several helium balloons, allowing the container to fall through the air at a very slow, controlled pace. Mehmet assured me that he had access to balloons through his work, so I thought that the process would be very simple. However, when we met for the first time on Sunday, Mehmet brought a number of empty balloons that could only be filled with air. Realizing the problem, we tried to come up with an alternative method. Mehmet suggested that instead of trying to come up with a completely new solution, we make the best of the materials we already had. While designing the container, we focused on keeping the container very light and providing ample padding for the egg. In the end, we used an orange canvas bag and filled it with a number of semi-inflated balloons. We used bubble wrap to surround the egg, and then nestled the egg in between the balloons in the bag. For added protection, we decided to inflate four balloons and secure them to the outside of the bag. To attach these external balloons, we used a long piece of tape and wrapped it several times around the outside of the container. Our intention with this extra element was to soften the impact from the drop, and possibly to help the container bounce. However, the true function of the balloons was to increase the surface area of the container and slow down the speed of the fall. Overall, the design of our container was very successful: our egg survived a drop from a third-story window. The best part of our design was that it was extremely light weight and low density. The end result worked much like I expected my helium balloon idea to work. Because there were so many balloons and no heavy materials, the density of the container was similar to the density of the air, so it dropped very slowly.

While we met the primary objective of the assignment, there are many ways we could improve the design of our product. First of all, the container lacked strong visceral design. There was exposed tape wrapped haphazardly around the outside of the container, which was a major aesthetic turn-off. To fix this problem, we could have used small pins to attach the lips of the external balloons to the bag. We also could have used black tape, which would have complimented the black and orange balloons. Another problem was that our design lacked durability. If the container had to be transported a long distance, or even kept in a dorm room for an extended period of time, it would not have been effective. The balloons on the outside would pop if they accidentally came in contact with sharp objects, and the balloons on the inside would have slowly deflated over time. In addition, the tape probably would not have kept the balloons secured to the bag for more than a short time. To improve durability for a long term project, we could have probably eliminated the external balloons all together. Even without these balloons, the container still had very low density and fell slowly. Cutting out the external balloons and tape would address another problem with our design: excessive materials. From an environmental standpoint, our container wasted unnecessary resources.

I was very interested to see some of the other groups' designs during the drop in class. I though Cameron, John, and Keaton's solution was very interesting. By freezing their egg in water, they made a much heavier, bulkier container. However, because the egg was secured in the middle of the ice, it did not crack upon impact. I also liked Christina and Olivia's solution. The parachute was the most impressive part of the design, since it slowed down the speed of the fall much like our balloons. Because the parachute did not rip during the drop, it must have been constructed out of a durable material and with an effective physical design.

This is the link to Mehmet's blog: http://mhmtpov.blogspot.com/