Don’t Crack Under Pressure
December 16, 2019
After finishing either Chemistry or Physics, selecting the next science class is up to each student. A lot of students decide to either switch to Ocean Science or Astronomy. There are a few who decide to embark in AP classes.
AP Physics is a hands-on class that does many fun projects to help understand the concepts. The most recent project was the Egg Bungee Lab. This was where teams of two or individuals by themselves would create a harness for their egg and then attach a string and rubber bands to their harness. After creating their contraptions, the teams would drop their eggs from the top of the commons and see how far from the ground the egg falls without touching the ground.
“Our egg was one and a half centimeters above the ground. I was most nervous about the first drop hitting the ground because there were a lot of good drops in the class,” junior Daniel Murphy said.
Murphy and his partner, junior Corbin Morris, received first place. Not far behind them, juniors Ethan Glaid and Carlos Fernandez placed second with four centimeters above the ground.
There were many failed attempts, with many teams breaking their eggs on the first trial. If their egg survived their first drop, the teams would then continue dropping to try and receive a better distance from the ground. To find the length of their strings and the number of rubber bands needed, before the drops all the students would use calculations to find these unknown variables. However, a couple of teams guessed and were successfully, even if Mrs. Hambling does not advise this.
“Ethan and I calculated the number of bands to use on the drop after picking a random length for the string,” Fernandez said.
Taking AP level classes may seem like a lot of difficult work but the majority of teachers enjoy adding fun parts into their lessons. If watching eggs drop and crack or explode with yolk is not fun, then what is?
