Egg Drop: Behind the Scenes

I have no photos or videos to add to the collection of media capturing the egg drop that took place at Dakota State University this past week; however, I can give a snapshot of my behind-the-scenes view. Two weeks ago my significant other got out of class and told me about an assignment they were starting. The assignment involved building a structure around an egg using only toothpicks, wooden skewers, and hot glue. Upon hearing this assignment I asked if they would fail the assignment if their eggs broke.  I was assured that the students would not fail the assignment if their eggs broke, as the main point of the assignment was to focus on the aesthetic of the structure.  

We spent that next weekend watching the Dark Knight trilogy and during that time, Nathan slaved over his structure. The main structure was a sort of pyramid made from wooden skewers and filled with panels made from toothpicks. I watched as Nathan patiently coated individual toothpick panels with layers of hot glue, waiting for the glue to cool slightly and become tacky. At this point he would quickly grab another toothpick and stick it in the tacky glue, pull the toothpick away from the main panel bringing thin webs of glue with it. He would then wrap the webs around the panels until the glue set too much to pull the webs from. This process was repeated on the same panel until the web became thick enough to hopefully catch some air as it would drop.

The day of the egg drop came and the structure was completed. All the panels were in place, the egg was secured, and large flat panel using the same web technic had been added to the top of the structure in order to hopefully act as a parachute. As I gathered below the fire escape with a group of students who had come to watch the excitement, my nerves increased as I wondered whether all the time spent on the structure would pay off. Was the egg going to make it? Nathan climbed up the fire escape to the point where the students would be dropping their structures, he held it out over the railing, and let go. His structure floated to the ground—as much as a structure carrying the weight of an egg can float and landed with a slight bounce and an unbroken egg.