Wednesday, 10 October 2007 - 5:49 PM EDT

The egg will not break upon impact, no matter how fast it is initially moving because the time of impact between the egg and the sheet is far too great.  The bed sheet slows the egg down over an extended period of time as opposed to a very, very short amount of time, like if the ball were thrown against a wall.  The sheet is very flexible and moves back with the egg extending the time that they are in contact with each other.

Wednesday, 10 October 2007 - 10:12 PM EDT

Because the sheet does indeed slow down the egg to a stop, but it doesn't do it all at once. The egg's momentum is lost gradually over an amount of time as the sheet slows the egg to a stop, instead of say hitting a brick wall and losting all of it's momentum at once due to a massive impulse. Done.

Wednesday, 10 October 2007 - 10:21 PM EDT

The egg will not break when it hits the sheet this is because the sheet will allow the egg to go along with it since it is very flexible and at the same time will be slowing it down.  So the time that the sheet takes to stop the egg will be very long. It doesn’t matter a what momentum it is traveling at since the force exerted on the egg will not be large enough to break the egg. However, it is the opposite if the student were to throw it at a wall since the time the wall will take it to decelerate the egg will be less than one second and if it were to travel at the same velocity. Then the force exerted on the egg would be large enough to break it. 

Thursday, 11 October 2007 - 10:05 AM EDT

Since the sheet is flexable, it allows the impact to happen over an extended period of time.  Because of this, the momentum change is more gradual, meaning that the egg's velocity will change more gradually as well since p=mv.  Therefore, the egg will not break.  If it was instead thrown against a wall, which does not give as easily as the sheet does, the momentum change would occur much faster, so the egg's velocity would change faster as well, breaking it.

Thursday, 11 October 2007 - 10:43 AM EDT

The egg will not break because of the time of impact between the egg and sheet. The egg is able to slow down over a longer period of time as opposed to very short period, which would be the case if it was thrown at a break wall. This extended period of time that the egg and the sheet come in contact allows the egg to stay intact.

Thursday, 11 October 2007 - 2:14 PM EDT

Since Fbar Δt = m (Vf-Vo), Force is inversely proportional to Δt.  Since the egg is in contact with the sheet for a large amount of time, even though the speed change is great, the impact time cancels it out, and decreases the average force on the egg.

Thursday, 11 October 2007 - 2:30 PM EDT

Due to the extreme flexibility that comes with...fabric, the impulse and time of impact of the egg with the sheet will be extremely large. Therefore, the change in momentum is very gradual and less force is exerted all at once. If the egg was being thrown at a brick wall or some other material that doesn't visibly give without a high speed camera, it would be a different story because the time of impact would be miniscule.

Friday, 12 October 2007 - 10:49 AM EDT

The egg will not break because the sheet gives in with the impact of the egg meaning that that the egg's time to slow down is increased.  Instead if thrown against a wall it the time of impact will be very very short and the egg will break.  Because of the sheet the egg has an extended period of time to stop and so the egg doesn't not break.  You can see this concept's realationship to that of a car's airbag that gives a person a longer period of impact so they do not get hurt in a crash or so that they don't get hurt as much.

Sunday, 14 October 2007 - 10:03 PM EDT

The egg will not break because the impulse on the egg is not great enough to crack the shell.  Impluse is force over time, and because the sheet is able to 'give' with the egg, it increases the time that a force is exerted on the egg.  Although a brick wall and the sheet exert the same total force on the egg to slow it down, the difference in time over which the forces are exerted is great.  Personally I think that it is humanly possible to break an egg on a sheet, so I would like to test that out sometime.