Science Methods 2 Blog Post 4

 

This week in lab we did an egg experiment where we first dropped an egg from 1 meter then dropped an egg from 2 meters, into a bowl that we filled with sand, straw, rubber, and woodchips to mimic materials found in a playground setting. In this experiment, we were able to customize the items we chose to place in our bowls based on how well we thought the items would protect our egg from cracking. What we found in this experiment is some objects would create a softer cushion than others to protect the egg from cracking, we also discovered that when the egg was dropped it caused the majority of items to disburse out of the bowl. When reading the textbook I was able to discover why the items disburse out of the bowl and that is because of the transfer of kinetic energy. When an item is dropped (the item being the egg) the energy of that item is transferred to the surrounding air or surrounding items (the surrounding items being the objects in the bowl). This is important information to know in order to understand the safest playground material for students to play on, we want a playground that provides cushioning for students if they are to fall.