The goal of our project is to develop a helmet that protects a cyclist's head more effectively than currently available helmets. Instead of a head, we used raw eggs for our experiments. We started by testing a helmet made from polystyrene, which protects the egg up to a fall height of 4.20 m. Later we built helmets from various materials and conducted many fall experiments. Our best helmets used sugar or salt and did protect the eggs even when they fell from a height of 10 m. This corresponds to a speed of about 50 km/h. By studying the different materials under a microscope, we found an explanation why our helmets protect eggs so much more effectively than normal polystyrene helmets.
