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Art 13's "Leonardo da Vinci" Egg Drop Devices.

This gallery features projects done for an assignment from San Jose State University's Art 13: 3D Concepts class, Spring 2002.

Chris Eckert, a brilliant artist, sculptor, and teacher, devised this assignment: Create Egg Drop Devices that look as if Leonardo da Vinci made them. Project guidelines at the bottom. As you can see, my classmates did some really outstanding work.

A 10-minute movie of the egg drop event, shot and edited by Sam, is available for viewing here:

Frame grabs from the movie:

Jeff B This landed perfectly on its feet, and the wings turned quite nicely. Egg Survival: Yes.	Jeff B drops his device as Sam films. We were on the second floor of the Student Union building.	Jeff M Another nice wing-turner. Solid construction. Egg Survival: Yes.	Jennifer S This was the second go at the device after someone recklessly sat on the first version. Egg Survival: No.
Jennifer W Geodesic is Latin for "Fun to Look At" Egg Survival: No.	Obviously not for dropping eggs in, but this previous "Imaginary Skeleton" project by Jennifer W. was pretty cool.	Jimmy This clinched the "Biggest Splat" award when Jimmy hurled it into the ground, as opposed to dropping it with utmost care like the rest of us. A bit dangerous b/c all the nails went flying, but hilarious to witness. Egg Survival: No.	Jimmy points, explaining, "I want my thing to take out the people way over there, as well as just below. Haha ha!"
Josipa The balloons provided a nice soft landing. Egg Survival: Yes.	Kien Also in the running for "Biggest Splat," this device unfortunately threw the egg only straight up and back onto the balcony.	Lea The feathers were a nice touch, but she could have went really crazy with those and just smothered the parachute completely. Egg Survival: Yes.	Lea drops her device.
Lonnie The legs, with joints made from rubberbands and string, bent just slightly as it landed. Egg Survival: Yes.	Mike This spiraled all the way down so beautifully that I got hypnotized and forget if the egg made it or not. Egg Survival: Can't recall.	"Look into the spiral. You are getting sleepy. Sleeeeepy"	Muriel Check out that rubberband basket. Cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet. Egg Survival: Yes.
Niem This is a shout-out to all those luscious Chinese Take-Out boxes I've known and loved in my life. Awwww yeeeaaah. Gimme sumadat. Actually, that's all folded paper, I didn't just go and get a take-out box. Although that would have been delicious. Egg Survival: Yes.	Richard So nicely made that it wasn't cast into the ether, although everyone else wanted to see it destroyed. Such is the way with beauty. Egg Survival: Unknown.	Robert Fell right into the garbage bin, which made for many hearty cheers, and a raising of my forelimbs. Egg Survival: Yes.	Sam Working from the theory that 2 parachutes are better than one, and 4 are two times better than that. Simple math, kids. Egg Survival: Don't remember.

Leonardo Egg-drop

Pretend that you are Leonardo da Vinci and design a device that will protect a large raw grade-A egg when dropped from the top of the Art and Design building.

Begin your project by researching Leonardo da Vinci. Spend some time looking at the drawings from his sketchbooks. The library has several books available and you can make copies and sketches of drawings you find interesting. There is an abundance of information available on the Internet as well. You may also want to research "egg drop" contests. This is an assignment often given to engineering and physics students but, where their interest is primarily functional, ours is primarily aesthetic. Your design should be limited to materials believably available to Leonardo da Vinci. Possible materials include: Wood, paper, fabric, string, and rubber bands.

On the day of our critique, we will drop our finished projects out the third story windows of the Art and Design building. When the device is released, it cannot be in contact with the ground, a person, or a structure. For example, you can't simply lower a basket tied to a piece of string.

Ten extra points will be awarded to the projects that our class votes best in each of the following categories.

Most Creative -- The most imaginative solution to the problem.

Most Complex -- The most convoluted and intricate solution to the problem.

Biggest Splat -- The device that covers the greatest area on landing. This may include egg splatter. Come prepared to clean up your mess!

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