Gravity, a company headed by founder, Robert Browning, built an iron man style flying suit using jet turbine engines. 

Recently, Browning himself beat the previous 30mph world speed record in a jet turbine suit. The company has plans to add wings to the design and make it even more fuel efficient. For now one of their greatest engineering challenges is safety in collisions and crash landings. 

Your job is to use what you know about the physics of forces in order to develop a design for protective gear of your choice (ex. a football helmet, wrist pads for skateboarding, shoulder pads, jacket, etc.

more force and in less time than an egg thrown at a wall

more impulse and more force than an egg thrown at the wall

less force and over more time than an egg thrown at the wall

less impulse and less force than an egg thrown at the wall

There’s so much data from the learning we’ve done that you can use to design better protective gear. No need to spend a lot of time on each of these again, but these are great to reference for your design.

What does the skateboard simulation show about how force can cause a concussion?

What does the impact location graph say about which parts of the head need more protection and which need the least protection?

You can reference your own egg drop experience, what worked and what didn’t. There’s also an egg drop simulator with some great data. 

What does the egg drop tell us about padding and impacts?

What does the helmet impulse data tell us about the amount of force applied with different amount of foam padding? 

Based on what you learned from your research and the video about car crash safety, design a first prototype for your protective gear of choice. Include an explanation for your design that uses specific evidence and physics concepts to justify features. Schematic designs can be a cool way to break down and label features and materials. For an example of a schematic design use the image below.

Use what you know about physics of forces and motion to design better protective gear

Designing Safe Protective Gear