Museum of Science and Industry

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The egg drop illustrates the transfer of potential energy to kinetic energy. The potential energy from the eggs transfers into kinetic energy after an outside force (gravity) acts upon the egg.

This activity also demonstrates Newton’s first law of motion (inertia), which says that an object at rest tends to stay at rest, while an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. The eggs stay at rest until acted upon by an outside force. Gravity is the force that that pulls the eggs down once there is no longer another outside force (the piece of cardboard) to hold them up.

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