Rotor (Helicopter) Egg Drop event for Science Olympiad division B

From: Bob Clemens <rclemens2_at_rochester.rr.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:06:41 -0400

Don Steeb and I co-supervised this even earlier this year. The students gave it a good try, and there were more entries than either of us expected. The drops were made from approximately 15 feet. None of the entrants, even those few whose rotors actually helped slow the descent, achieved anything that could be considered a soft landing. Precise timing was all but impossible. Don and I never had our watches agree. We both thought that the foam egg carriers used really prevented egg breakage. As I recall we had only two broken eggs from approximately 12-15 entries.

As far as the event itself is concerned we both felt it was ill-conceived. From 15 feet autorotation was just getting started just before impact, if at all, so the varied design approaches were hard to evaluate. Times were in the 1 to 2+ second area which made accuracy of timing difficult if not impossible. I wonder whether or not the perhaps delusional inventors of this event actually try it out first. Frankly, if the vent is still on the schedule, I’d like to see it dropped in favor of one of the flying events. It most certainly won’t win us any new indoorists among middle school students who struggle with it.

Bob Clemens
Received on Mon Oct 15 2012 - 14:06:58 CEST