In the US, it’s between 6:02am and 6:02pm and the date is 10/23/13, so that means it’s Mole Day! 6.02×1023 is the number of things (atoms, molecules, elephants, moles) in 1 mole of that material. Think of a dozen (12 things) on speed. Lots & lots of speed!
To celebrate the day, my chemistry students got to take a quiz on stoichiometry (using balanced equations to determine amounts of material – using molar mass, among other things). Lucky kids! Physics, OTOH, tested their platforms for the Egg Drop competition.
Each year, I alternate platform and carriage. Last year was carriage (put the egg in the carrier and drop it) so this year is platform (drop the naked egg onto the platform). The band director rents a scissor lift each year for marching band, and he’s been kind enough to let us use it since the loss of the second & third floors of the school building. So we test from three heights – 1m above the platform, ~4m above the ground, and ~8m above the ground (which nearly maxes out the lift).
To win the competition, the dropped egg has to survive all three drops onto the platform (though everyone gets 1 redo per height) AND be the shortest off the ground. The previous record was 11.5cm tall. This year, the FOURTH place team beat that.
The students had some very imaginative ideas. One pair brought a wonderful handmade trampoline that performed well (and would have been a contender in prior years). The winning team (whose platform was only 6.5cm tall!) made theirs with lemon cake, vanilla pudding, and fruit-flavored marshmallows. Heh. It was terrific watching it land from the highest drop. A splat & a crater in the pudding, but it was just fine. (To prove it, the young lady licked the pudding off of the egg. Heh.)
We had a tie for 3rd place (both were 10.5cm) so the tie-breaker is always a vote from the class on best appearance. Any other year, I suspect the box o’ bras would have won (“well, they’re known for their support” claimed one of the teammates) EXCEPT they tied the team who made theirs out of Twinkies – and then shared the (thankfully un-egged) Twinkies with the class. Heh.
Today was probably the coldest day we’ve had the Egg Drop contest on – and there was snow on the ground on my way in to school today. But despite the chill, we had fun outside watching the eggs fall and, for the most part, survive.