Question

newtons 1st law of motion: egg drop
data and observations: draw a sketch of your observations before and after the activity in the space below.
before\tafter

what did you see? was there anything you were not expecting?

egg drop questions:
why does the egg fall into the cup of water instead of falling and breaking on your counter?

how is this experiment backed by newtons 1st law of motion (law of inertia)?

Explanation:

Data and Observations (Sketch Explanation, as it's a drawing prompt, but for the written part):

Before:

• A setup (e.g., egg balanced on a card over a cup of water, maybe with a ruler or hand to flick the card). The egg is stationary, the card is still, the cup has water.

After:

• The card is moved (flicked away), the egg falls into the cup of water (if the experiment worked). If the egg broke, the card is away and egg is on the counter.

What did you see? Was there anything unexpected?

• Observation: When the card was flicked quickly, the egg dropped into the water instead of moving with the card. If the flick was too slow, the egg might have moved with the card and broken.
• Unexpected: Maybe how little force on the card (flick) was needed to make the egg fall straight down, or that the egg didn’t “follow” the card’s motion.

Egg Drop Questions:

1. Why does the egg fall into the cup of water instead of breaking on the counter?

• The egg has inertia (Newton’s 1st Law). When the card is flicked, the card moves quickly, but the egg (due to inertia) tends to stay at rest. So instead of moving with the card, it falls vertically into the cup (gravity pulls it down) rather than moving horizontally to the counter.

2. How is this experiment backed by Newton’s 1st Law of Motion (Law of Inertia)?

• Newton’s 1st Law states that an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion (with constant velocity) unless acted on by a net external force. The egg is at rest initially. When the card is flicked (external force on the card), the card moves, but the egg (with inertia) resists this change in its state of rest. So it remains at rest horizontally (doesn’t move with the card) and only moves vertically due to gravity, falling into the cup.

Answer:

s (for the questions, as the sketch is a drawing task):

• What did you see?: When the card was flicked, the egg fell into the water (if successful); if not, it broke on the counter. The card moved away quickly.
• Unexpected?: The egg’s tendency to stay still (inertia) was more obvious than expected—how it didn’t move with the card.
• Why into the cup?: Inertia keeps the egg at rest horizontally; gravity pulls it down into the cup.
• Newton’s 1st Law: The egg (at rest) stays at rest (horizontally) when the card is flicked (external force on the card), so it falls vertically into the cup (gravity is the force causing vertical motion).