April 27, 2005

Students to compete with airborne eggs

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Groups of high school students will use physics principles to shoot eggs through the air without breaking them during the second annual Iron Egg Drop Competition.

The event will take place at 10 a.m. Friday (April 29) at Ball State University's West Campus Field Picnic Shelter, in Muncie, Ind. Purdue University's College of Technology Anderson/Muncie location and Ball State's Department of Industrial Technology are sponsoring the competition.

In the competition, groups of four to six high school students design and build an apparatus to launch an egg at a target 25 feet away, as well as a container to hold the egg and keep it from breaking upon landing.

"The creativity the teams use is very impressive," said Dave Riegle, Purdue's Anderson/Muncie student services coordinator. "The project helps students put their physics and other science classes to work and learn about the process of designing and building. Last year, one team used a bag of flour to cushion their egg. It was simple but worked great."

Teams also submit a written report that includes design schematics, a budget, the scientific basis of the device and other information. They are judged on a combination of launch accuracy, creativity, egg protection and quality of the written report.

Participating schools are Delta High School, Muncie, Ind.; Blackford County High School, Hartford City, Ind.; Heritage Hall Christian School, Muncie; Greenfield Central High School, Greenfield, Ind.; Pendleton Heights High School, Pendleton, Ind.; Noblesville High School, Noblesville, Ind.; and Marion High School, Marion, Ind.

The contest will be postponed in the event of inclement weather.

Writer: Matt Holsapple, (765) 494-2073, mholsapple@purdue.edu

Source: Dave Riegle, (765) 641-4305, driegle@bsu.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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