The Origami Forum

Hi i am an architecture student. This is my first year in school.
As a final project teachers want us to cover an egg with folding a paper. We are going to make a model and put an egg into that
model and we are going to throw it from 2 meters away from the
ground. When it hit the ground egg shouldn't be broken. So have you
ever realise a suspension system in a part of your origami? What kind
of system do you think i can cover the egg?

Something like Paul Jackson's bowls looking so great for that job. http://www.origami-artist.com/org_abstracts.htm If you have diagrams of those bowls or any other things you think will help me pls send it to d_savaskan AT hotmail DOT com
If you help me i will be really glad. Thank you.

E-Mail edited by Moderator

The best thing I can imagine is putting the egg in two of Charles Esseltine´s "Gel o Ball"s. The first one should be that large that the egg just fits into it, the second one should be that large, that the first one can be put into it with changed directions. You would have to experiment a bit (I recommend to use cooked eggs for that kind of experiment), but I think it could work.

The bowl you linked to doesn´t seem as it would absorb enough energy to save the egg.

hi thank you for your answer i am gonna try it right now. I hope it works. By the way cooked eggs are not allowed :d

thanks again. I am gonna reply the result of it

what exactly are the rules? can you only use one sheet of paper? does it have to be precisely folded or can you scrumple?. I think ideally you want lots of layers, separated by strengthening struts. Probably something involving corrugation would work, although i dont know how to make it spherical (or ovoid) rather than cylindrical. how will it be thrown? by you or someone else? from a standard height? I like this challenge

if you can use modular origami (lots of sheets attached without glue) then you could use what they call a sonobe module, and make an icosahedral shape or a more complex egg-like shape... it'd then be covered in cube-corner pyramids, very good for shock absorption, especially made out of paper that will crumple a little

Have done this challenge at a science fair with only 3 pieces of 8.5 x 11 papers and some tapes. I came up with making cones about 3 or 4 inches long and attaching it to the egg with tape, so you get a spiky egg.
The cones work in increasing the time of impact and decreasing the force on the egg when it get crush or deform by the impact.

I was able to drop the egg from a two story building, about 5 or 6 meter above the ground and the egg survive with no damage.

I couldnt make the Gel-o Ball. The rules are simple, no glue, you can use how much paper you want, no tape, only folding. The model also shouldnt take any damage.

Btw. I tried this one. http://origami.paginas.sapo.pt/RSTUVWXYZ.htm But i did only half of it and the egg is broken in front of the whole class ity was terrible eheh but it wasn't the final model. I have to make something working until monday.

come on people i really need help.

If they wouldn´t be that hard to connect, I would recommend curler units (waterbomb bases that have all four flaps curled from the middle upwards), but I´m not sure if this could really work. But since I just see it, I have another idea. This is something Gerwin invented some time ago and it´s really easy to make:

Take the masu box from this diagrams with the only exception, that in step 3 you fold two opposite edges in the other direction (mountain instead of valley). Make six of them. Now you will have flaps and pockets to insert them on your boxes, so that you can combine them to a ball, but before you do that, bring the sides of the boxes to the middle and shape them like in the above picture. Don´t use very sharp creases for shaping, just pinch it in form, so that you get a ball that can absorb a lot of energy when falling down to the ground. I hope that works.

Btw.: To keep the egg save, you can insert a reversed ball inside the outer ball with the ornaments inside. For the balls I would use rather stiff paper and heavy paper, but maybe I am false about this, just try.

I know this might come a bit late, but I was on a camp and this is the first chance I have to post here. The best idea I can think of is constructing a square tube as in Thoki Yenn's umulius and putting the egg inside the tube. Use these diagonals (if horizontal are valley, make diags. mountain and vice versa)to collapse it like a spring (it will rotate):
________________A___
____________________
____________________ (A=45°or greater)
____________________
____________________

The larger angle A is the more conical (actually a pyramid shape) the inside wil be. At 45° the inside is completely flat. I would recomend using a precollapsed flat one to keep the egg inside (on the top), and a precollapsed conical also at the top, but under the egg. I would advise this one be very conical. Then make as many conical ones as posible between the egg and the ground, each conseccutive one being less conical than the previous.

There you go, try it.