The Incredible Inertial Egg Drop! (Physics)
Get ready to learn a trick that you'll master within 2 or 3 tries and amaze people with every time you do it. It's the Incredible Inertial Egg Drop! GREAT intro demonstration for Newton's 1st Law!
The Incredible Inertial Egg Drop!
Get ready to learn a trick that you'll master within 2 or 3 tries and amaze people with every time you do it. It's the Incredible Inertial Egg Drop! GREAT intro demonstration for Newton's 1st Law! Keep reading below the graphic for some content & extension info.
Experigraphic
What's Going On?
Newton's First Law of Motion (the Law of Inertia) says that objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless acted upon by a force. That's why this works - the egg has significantly more inertia than either the bowl or the tube, and is therefore much more difficult to stir from rest. When you apply force to the bowl, the tube is knocked out by the bowl's wall, but the egg's inertia keeps it at rest until it is acted upon by an outside force - namely, Gravity, which pulls it straight down into the waiting glass of water.
Pro Tips
1. You might go through an egg or two while getting this one down pat. I suggest putting your entire set-up onto a tray during your learning period. That way, any broken eggs will be on the tray for easier clean-up.
Practice hitting the side of the bowl with just enough force to knock it and the toilet paper tube out, but be careful of too much follow through - you do NOT want your hand to be under the falling egg!
Keep the force of your strike perpendicular to the glass - in other words, hit it sideways - no upward or downward force!
Extension Idea
Start with a Toilet Paper Roll. When you're confident and hitting that every time, try moving up to a paper towel roll!
© Hema and Eric Bulmer. All rights reserved.