Editing 510: Egg Drop Failure
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision | Your text | ||
Line 8: | Line 8: | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | A common competition for | + | A common competition for school-age children (e.g. in science fairs or summer camps) is the 'egg drop': each team is given an uncooked egg and an assortment of materials, e.g. newspaper, Popsicle sticks, string, tape, etc.. The challenge is to use the provided materials to build a contraption that will allow the egg to be dropped from some specified height onto a hard floor without breaking. Scoring varies wildly - common elements are speed of assembly, an accurately targetable landing, and mass of the contraption - but one near-universal requirement is that you are disqualified if the egg is broken. |
− | In the comic, the | + | In the comic, the student pictured fails, not because of any flaw in his design, but because the egg he was given hatches during the fall! (Of course, this is exaggerated to ludicrous extents; the hatching process takes longer than the few seconds the fall would last, and the newborn chick cannot fly immediately.) However, if it magically happens, then the student would be disqualified because the egg technically broke. However, as stated above, this would be impossible. {{Citation needed}} |
− | The title text suggests an alternate strategy, one Randall hears was successful in real life: select for your egg one that has not yet been laid. The | + | The title text suggests an alternate strategy, one Randall hears was successful in real life: select for your egg one that has not yet been laid. The hen provides both active lift with her wings and significant padding, thus nearly guaranteeing that the egg will survive the fall. Of course, this would not be permitted in most contests, as a chicken is not one of the provided materials. And even if it were allowed, a chicken is much heavier than the usual contraptions of newspaper and string. |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
:[Boy tosses contraption off of building with egg in it.] | :[Boy tosses contraption off of building with egg in it.] | ||
:[Egg cracks and little chick flies out while people look quizzically at the hatched egg.] | :[Egg cracks and little chick flies out while people look quizzically at the hatched egg.] | ||
− | + | :''Crack'' | |
− | + | :''Chirp, chirp'' | |
:[Device with cracked egg lands on ground.] | :[Device with cracked egg lands on ground.] | ||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | ||
[[Category:Animals]] | [[Category:Animals]] | ||
[[Category:Science]] | [[Category:Science]] |