Egg Collision Carts
Students had tons of fun competing against their classmates. In first block, Meredith Rembrandt and Maci Rutledge came away with the victory. In third block, Cooper Erickson and Isolde Tavizon took the crown.
On Wednesday, Mrs. Gregory's Physical Science class explored the real-world applications of forces and Newton's Laws of Motion. The students built egg collision carts meant to simulate a car crash. These collision carts needed to keep their passenger ...a plastic egg... seated in its vehicle while absorbing the shock of impact. Students could also attach offensive weapons to their cart ...pencils, popsicle sticks, the blunt end of nails... to act as battering rams against their opponents.
When designing their carts, students needed to remember all three of Newton’s Laws. Newton’s First Law states that an object in motion stays in motion until acted upon by an outside force. In other words, their cart’s passenger, if not stopped by a “seat belt,” would fly out upon collision. Newton’s second law tells us that force equals mass times acceleration. In other words, a massive and quickly accelerating cart can apply a great force to an opponent’s cart. Finally, Newton’s Third Law explains that for every force exists an equal but opposite force. Therefore, any force exerted to their opponent’s cart would be absorbed by their own cart as well. So, how to protect the egg from all this shock?
Here’s how a couple students explained their designs.
“My egg cart demonstrates Newtons’ 1st and 2nd Law. My cart kept my egg almost as a part of the cart keeping it secure, the cart also had a good amount of offensive weapons that used weight to be deadly. I watched videos and did a good deal of planning. My design was a combination of everything that was discussed in class making it the champion. I had good weight, a seatbelt, and good suspension. My egg cart won the competition, I think it won because of the combination of all designs and I planned out the build and designed decent ideas. I would maybe reinforce the shock absorption and make it more offensive with more attack weapons.” -Cooper Erickson
“This project tied into the different concepts we’ve learned in many ways. The cart uses Newton’s Second Law to hit the other cart with more force. You use gravity to help the egg cart fall down. The egg holder could hold the egg better with friction. I prepared for this project by thinking of ideas to make our box secure. I thought of what would hold the egg in, and how to hit the other carts with more force. My design uses friction to keep the egg in place by using hot glue. It also uses Newton’s Second Law due to its great mass. My egg cart did average, with it winning one round and losing after. The reason it lost was the suspension was not secure. It did well in how secure the box and the egg were. If I were to do this project again, I would use a different material for the suspension. I might also make it so the egg wouldn’t slip down.”
Submitted by CHS Freshman, Amanda Kittell
