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A package designed to protect three eggs from a fall of ten meters is dropped by a physics teacher on a lift.

The egg drop contest is an experiment usually performed by college or high school students enrolled in technical courses such as physics and engineering. Competitors typically attempt to create a device that can keep a raw chicken egg intact when dropped from a height.

[edit] Common restrictions

In order to keep the competition safe and fair for all competitors, restrictions are usually placed on the nature of the containers used. Common restrictions are:

• Weight limits (commonly 1000 grams)
• Size limits
• Materials limits (usually in the form of a list of prohibited materials, or in a specified list of allowable materials)
• Design limitations (limitation on drag devices, mechanical complexity etc.)
• Cost limits

 Approaches to device design

The use of materials to aid in the absorption of shock is a common approach. It is possible to prevent the eggs from breaking by absorbing the egg’s kinetic energy when the device hits the ground.

Another approach is a helicopter type device that attempts to slow the device by converting gravitational potential energy into rotational energy, thus dissipating the energy as air drag before the device hits.

Sometimes, air resistance is used to cause the device to collide with the ground in a desired orientation (to “stabilize the device”). For example, a project might have a ‘kite tail’, fins, or a parachute. If the device can be oriented relative to the ground when it strikes it is only necessary to provide shock absorption in one direction. This can be advantageous if weight or other restrictions apply.