This classic physics experiment is a really fun one! You get to create a descent vehicle for an egg dropped from a great height that helps the egg land gently enough to avoid going SPLAT!

Instead of testing design iterations on precious eggs, we can first prove out our vehicles using the CLUE board! It's packed with sensors and has a display and speaker for feedback -- we'll use those to study the impact g-force of our landing. Once we're satisfied with the data, we can swap out for the more fragile ovoid!

Here's an excellent video by Mark Rober explaining the physics behind the egg drop as well as showing five designs you can try out. Instead of testing on eggs each time, we will first determine the g forces sustained on impact with our CLUE board!

We really don't want you to break your CLUE board -- so be sure to test out your experiments in stages and ideally on softer surfaces before building up your confidence in your design to try it from full height over a harder surface!

Parts

Animated GIF showing CLUE board  displaying data from the many on-board sensors.
Do you feel like you just don't have a CLUE? Well, we can help with that - get a CLUE here at Adafruit by picking up this sensor-packed development board. We wanted to build some...
Out of Stock
Front angled shot of 3 x AAA battery holder with on-off switch and 2-pin JST PH connector.
This battery holder connects 3 AAA batteries together in series for powering all kinds of projects. We spec'd these out because the box is slim, and 3 AAA's add up to about...
$1.95
In Stock
Angled shot of 3 PKcell AAA batteries.
Battery power for your portable project! These batteries are good quality at a good price, and work fantastic with any of the kits or projects in the shop that use AAA's. This is a...
$1.50
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Materials & Tools

You'll want to try out some different materials and descent vehicle strategies.

  • Balloons
  • Cardboard
  • Plastic or paper drinking straws
  • Tape
  • Zip ties
  • Egg cartons
  • Rubber bands
  • Popcorn
  • Plastic or paper bags
  • Scissors
  • Hobby knife

One more bit of inspiration -- here's a MakeCode egg drop experiment setup running on the micro:bit:

This guide was first published on Mar 11, 2020. It was last updated on Mar 28, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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