I have been working with cardboard a lot the past week. The single-ply cardboard has corrugation which can be thought of as running vertically and having a horizontal direction, too.
Below are photos of one design and the process of going from 2D into 3D.
Also, I made a document of some physics research I found from readings in an old textbook and some videos about inertia, gravity, and potential/kenetic energy.
Below is a button that links to a folder of images and video documenting the three designs I developed for the project. The three designs are loosely named. Shell Chute, Confetti Prism, and Whirly Drop.
Shell Chute's design integrates a parachute. Parachutes are used in a lot of ways, but one of the most known is providing safe landing for skydivers. Although cardboard is not the same as a nylon, fabric, or woven soft-good the principle involved is a reduction in velocity by generating a drag on the object in free-fall. One innovative usage of cardboard developed for this design is taking a long strip of cardboard and using it as a string. The string method is used to apply tension to the chute, harness, and connect the harness to the chute.
Confetti Prism is different than Shell Cute and Whirly Drop. Instead of cardboard surrounding an egg that acts as an armor, Confetti Prism operates by catching an unprotected egg that is in free fall. Confetti Prism is places on the floor awaiting the egg to be dropped from above into it. A soft thin accumulation of crumbled, bent, and twisted strips of cardboard, talkto as "confetti" are packed into a open top triangular cylinder, which I call the prism. The prism has slots along the side walls on all three sides. These are used to create a "stop" or "shelf" which the confetti rests upon.
Whirly Drop takes the first geometric form and adds to it "blades" or "wings." The user inserts the egg into the "core" which then slides into two larger sheets of cardboard. Instructions are to twist the form at the point of release. This design increases drag and incorporates angular motion into the fall, greatly reducing the velocity of the falling egg in its protective form by design.