Round 4 – The Tremor Tower Challenge

When an earthquake, tornado or hurricane hits, few people think of the science that was used to protect their homes from these powerful elements of nature. In the Tremor Tower Challenge, the final three top-scoring students were put to the task, applying their scientific knowledge about the principals behind mechanical engineering, chemistry and basic physics to build a tower capable of protecting an egg during a simulated earthquake. After 50 minutes of serious planning and building (with several scientists as their assisting build team), each of the students towers were loaded onto the tremor table, and put through a rigorous series of tests. Students were judged on their tower’s structural integrity: How tall was it? How stable was it? How long did it take before the egg fell? Marina was up first with her duct tape covered tower—the egg sustained the challenge, and so did the tower! Next up was Nikita, whose tower had a strong base and used PVC pipe to create the stability. Nikita’s tower held up, but her egg jumped up and down and finally dropped. Last up was Nico, Nico’s tower had a variety of materials and used cross-bracing for stability. While Nico’s tower also sustained the earthquake, the tremors forced his egg to jump out of its perch and land on the floor!

Participants: Marina Dimitrov, Nikita Guarav and Nico Seamons

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