Droping an egg out of a second story building?

[lizbiz613]

hi in my class we have to be able to drop an egg out of a two story window and somehow make it not crack. the only items we can use is 30 straws and 30 straight pins. we can not do anything to the egg ie. hardboil it or blow out the insides. the stuff is attached to the egg not on the ground like a net. thank you

[Hymie]

Try this, join all 30 straws together to make a very long straw � join the straws by making a small cut in the straw wall at one end and insert one straw inside another (overlapping for a short distance). Improve the straw to straw joint using a pin inserted through the straws (bent over to stop the pin coming out).
Now wrap the egg in the long straw, leaving enough straw length loose at the start � to tie up with the other end of the straw (with the one remaining pin).

[lizbiz613]

thanks hymie the one problem is that i cannot cut the straws :(

[Hymie]

OK, join the straw ends without inserting one into another � just pin the overlapping straws together.
It might be worth investigating whether you can insert one straw end within another (without cutting), enough to join them with a pin.

Next, you�ll be telling me you that cannot bend the pins.

[Hymie]

An alternative design would be to use half the pins (or less) to join all the straws at one end. Place the egg on the joint and bring up all the straws up around the egg and make a similar joint of all the straws on top of the egg.
At any point on the side, the egg would only be protected by one straw and therefore the success of this design would be dependent on the aerodynamics of the object.
To stand any chance of success, the object would have to impact on either end. If you have control over the orientation of the egg, at the point of release � this design may work.

[mibn2cweus]

Pin two straws in a cross X formation. Bring the ends around the egg and pin together to form a harness around the egg. Collapse one end of each of the remaining straws so that you can insert that end into the next to form a continuous chain of straws pinned together. This string of 28 straws should be easily long enough to gently lower the egg to the ground from a second story window.

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[north star]

Not what the task is about but you may get some brownie points for suggesting that you could remove the window frame from the second storey and placing it at ground level.