Egg Crash! Designing a Collision Safety Device

Build a paper landing-pad for a dropped egg to explore how airbags reduce crash forces.

Key Questions

• How do people survive major vehicle collisions?
• How do the laws and principles of physics demonstrate the effectiveness of safety belts and airbags?

Student Directions

1. View the Introduction video.
2. Download and print the Student Activity Sheet.
3. Do the activity and begin answering the analysis questions.
4. View the Conclusion video and finish answering the analysis questions.
5. View the video segment of "It's Basic Physics" to help review the science concept(s).

Momentum: the inertia of moving objects; product of the mass and the velocity of an object (p = mv)

Impulse: product of force and time interval during which the force acts (F x t); impulse equals change in momentum, Ft=∆(mv)