What happens if you drop an egg or throw it against a wall?

It breaks.

In an egg toss, how do you keep an egg from breaking? 

Protect it from breaking.

The force of impact is affected by speed, weight, and the distance between the impact and where the object stops. When it's thrown at a wall, an egg stops at the wall, so it breaks. When tossing an egg to a partner, the hands of the partner cradle it to help slow down the egg’s speed to a complete stop.  

Last week, the Drivers’ Education students learned about the force of impact by creating egg dropbox projects. The objective of the activity is for students to create a box that will keep a raw egg from breaking when dropped from different heights. The students came up with ways to not only help absorb the force of impact but also to restrain their egg to keep it from moving in the box.

The Drivers' Education students were very creative using many different methods to protect their egg: air-filled sandwich bags, bubble wrap, a parachute, cloth, and many other creative things. After two drops, students reflected on their designs and whether or not their box kept their egg safe. Even if an egg is secured correctly, it may still break due to a lack of material to help absorb the force of impact.

This assignment was more than a physics experiment, it also showed the students the importance of safety restraints and features in a vehicle. The egg, which represents a person, needs to be safely secured in order to stay in the box, which represents a vehicle. If a person is not secured in the vehicle, they can be thrown from the vehicle and sustain serious injuries. 

This assignment taught students the importance of safety restraints and why seatbelts should be worn every time they are in a vehicle.