How could you make a simple and lightweight egg contraption?

Answer 1

I just made the most awesome vessel for my egg drop experiment, it is designed to fall 10 meters, but I bet it could go any distance at max velocity and survive impact. I wrote this out in great description, but the contraption itself is actually very simple to make and cheap. It took me about 15 minutes after I came up with the design.

My egg contraption was an Orange Juice carton (2qt) I cleaned out and opened the top up fully, then lined the bottom half with cotton balls I pulled apart to make it fluffier. I then put two small holes centered opposite of each other about halfway up the carton. I got a condom and put the egg in the condom, centered it and put it in the carton. I used a paper clip I shaped to be a hook to bring both sides of the condom through the holes I made, and tied it very tightly so that the egg was suspended with the condom, not touching or near any sides of the carton. I packed the second half of the carton with more pulled-apart cotton (careful not to pack too tight).

I probably could have stopped there and been confident my egg was safe, but instead I used the cover of a paper-back text book (anything the size of paper, slightly heavier, but not as heavy as cardboard) to make a sleeve/flap/piston. I cut the cover in strips, leaving the bottom intact so it was still one piece but sort of ripped up, then taped into an open-ended rectangular that would fit the OJ carton loosely.I folded the stripped cover at varied lengths to make little flaps that would increase wind resistance. Then when I taped the flap/sleeve onto the carton, I used only enough tape for it to hold during the fall, and made sure it was up high on the carton, not centered. This made the center of gravity lower, ensuring the carton would land on the bottom like I wanted, and by keeping the sleeve loose, it acted as a piston because when it hit the ground, the tape did not hold and sent the sleeve to the ground, so essentially, the weight of the sleeve didn't affect the cartons impact much because it impacted on its own by sliding past the carton on impact.