Re: How much g force will a chicken egg take before it breaks?

Date: Tue Aug 3 08:48:34 1999
Posted By: Tom Cull, MadSci Admin
Area of science: physics
ID: 929378983.Ph

Message:

Hi David, I don't think anyone really knows the answer to your question "How much force does it take to break an egg?" However, there are some basic principles to consider in the breaking of eggs (or many other things).

Most successful egg drop apparatus do two things:

Slow down the free fall of the egg by providing lift ( force against gravity).
Spread the impact force over a wide surface area or away from the egg.

1. Slowing the free fall of the egg lowers the acceleration and since force is mass times acceleration this will lower the force. Most egg drop contests run by engineering departments prohibit "air brake" mechanisms like parachutes or wings. Wings could be used to give the egg a horizontal component to its motion and reduce the vertical acceleration like an airplane or glider. This way the sudden impact with the ground is not as severe and the egg airplane can skid to a safe stop on the ground.

2. The force and pressure are both important in breaking an egg (or really an object). For example, when cooking eggs one can break an egg by tapping it on the edge of a bowl. The force is not great but the area of the applied force is the width of bowl's edge times the width of the egg. Since pressure is force divided by area tapping an egg on the side of a bowl generates more pressure than tapping the same egg on the top of a table.

Another example of #2 is the crumple zone on a car. It is designed to protect the passengers from serious injury by absorbing energy from the impact of collision. When it works properly, the crumple zone reduces accerelation gradually to prevent extreme whiplash by lowering the coefficient of restitution of the collision.

Sincerely,

Tom "Chef Tell" Cull

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