Paper Car Crash!

As a culminating activity option, design, build, and crash an egg-carrying paper car to determine the most crashworthy design.

Key Questions

• Is it possible to build a car frame and body from paper and glue that is strong enough to protect a raw egg during a head-on collision?
• What engineering and design features determine a vehicle's crashworthiness?

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 "When Physics Meets Biology" to help review the science concept(s).

Crashworthiness: how well a vehicle protects its occupants in a crash. A crashworthy vehicle design reduces the risk of death and injury

Impulse (J): the product of a force and the time interval during which the force acts, F∆t

Momentum (p): the product of the mass and velocity of an object, p = m × v