Throwing an Egg

Throwing an Egg#

Aliyah throws an egg as hard as they can towards a bed sheet held vertically by two of their friends. The bottom of the sheet is shaped like a “J” to catch the egg after if falls.

Figure of an egg thrown towards a bedsheet shaped like a 'J' held by two friends.

Part 1#

The egg does not break.

This is because:

Answer Section#

  • The energy in the egg is not sufficient to allow it to break.

  • The egg experiences an elastic collision with the sheet.

  • The time interval over which the egg slows down in short enough that the net force acting on the egg is not large enough for it to break.

  • The impulse acting on the egg is not as large as if the egg hit a brick wall.

  • The time interval over which the egg slows down is large enough that the acceleration of the egg is not large enough for it to break.

Attribution#

Problem is licensed under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
The Creative Commons 4.0 license requiring attribution-BY, non-commercial-NC, and share-alike-SA license.