Articles
Students not chicken about dropping eggs
The Red Bull Gravity Challenge was not only about winning - students had a blast engaging in teamwork and creating weird and whacky egg-landing contraptions last week.
- By Amelia Naidoo, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:41 November 15, 2008
- Students participated in the Redbull Gravity Challenge where they drop an egg from a height of 15 metres and get it to land safely at Knowledge Village.
- Image Credit: Atiq-ur-Rehman/Gulf News
The Red Bull Gravity Challenge was not only about winning - students had a blast engaging in teamwork and creating weird and whacky egg-landing contraptions last week. Amelia Naidoo was there
They say you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. SAE Institute student Barry Moore and his Red Bull Rastas team went through more than 50 eggs in preparation for the Red Bull Gravity Challenge finale held at Dubai Knowledge Village last week.
"We've used a lot of eggs testing our egg-landing machine since we heard about the competition two weeks ago," said Moore who with his team mates Dominic Carolan and Zion Veira study audio engineering at SAE Institute.
The team is among hundreds of students who have been defying the law of gravity with their egg-landing contraptions as they participated in various rounds of the Red Bull Gravity Challenge to win a skydiving experience.
Rounds one and two were recently held at Dubai International Academic City and UAE University, Al Ain respectively.
When Notes arrived at the competition venue, students were furiously making last minute adjustments to their entries. Curious onlookers crowded around eager to see who would win.
Moore's group demonstrated how their entry would hold an egg that would be dropped from a height of 15m and land intact as it touched the ground.
"It cost us about Dh150 in plastic, silk and rope to build a plastic ball that holds the egg, which is attached to a parachute. We drop the ball and when it hits the ground it cracks open and the egg rolls out," said Moore.
"We know we're gonna win. It wasn't very successful at first but now we're at a 75 per cent success rate," he continued.
Nervous jitters
The Hogs team, however, were a little nervous about their strange entry that resembled a goat's head. Team members Nigel Fernandez from SAE Institute, Salman Shaikh and Ardala Saberi from Middlesex University Dubai, said they had not tested their project as yet.
"Today is the first time we're actually using an egg in our tests. Hopefully it lands properly and the egg doesn't break. We're quite nervous because there are some good entries out there," said Fernandez.
Other teams had entries that ranged from the elaborate and whacky to the simplistic.
Entrants who competed a few days earlier at UAE University in Al Ain also enjoyed the experience. Twenty-two teams participated and X-Team scored the most points by having their machine land in the egg-landing zone. Free Team came second while Al Hawareth came in third place after scoring 25 points.
"We are so happy to win the Red Bull Gravity Challenge; we honestly did not expect it, Free Team worked hard on their egg-landing machine and their creativity definitely helped them to score high.
"But after all we were lucky to have our machine land in the egg-landing zone which made us the champions today!" said Ahmad Hassan Hejjo, leader of the team Newton's Challenge.
Competition rules
The competition was open to university members across the UAE, including students, professors, tutors, lecturers and assistants.
Teams of three could participate with one contestant allowed to go up to the starting platform in order to drop the egg. The other team members can call out tips and suggestions from ground level.
To participate in the event, teams have to draw a sketch of the egg-landing machine, which cannot exceed 5kg in weight and 1square metre in size.
The machine will be technically scrutinised before the start and should there be any risk of danger, the egg won't be allowed up onto the starting platform and will instead be cracked into a frying pan.
Each team has one minute for a short show before dropping the device from the platform. The creativity and the idea behind the egg-landing machine are also evaluated.
Share this article
Your access to everything in education
