Inertia Experiment: An Orange Drops Into The Cup

A Peculiar Playdate #4 ∙ Published Dec 18, 2018

We came up with a fun inertia experiment that can introduce your kids to the Newton’s first law of motion! It’s a remake of a famous “egg drop inertia experiment”. However, because these kinds of experiments tend to go wrong in the beginning, we have substituted an egg for an orange, so that you have less mess to clean up! Master it, and it will be another thing you can add to your arsenal of excellent playdate ideas.

What you need?

An orange
A cup. We used a measuring cup.
A tray. We used a plastic one.
An empty toilet paper roll

How to make it

Step 1

Place your tray on the cup. It doesn’t need to be full of water

Step 2

Put an empty toilet paper roll onto the tray

Step 3

Place an orange on top of an empty paper roll

Step 4

Now hit the tray from the side!

What happens

The tray snaps out from between the toilet paper roll and tray, and the orange falls neatly into the cup! This inertia experiment is very similar to a popular “egg drop” one.

Why it happens

The orange sits on the top of the paper roll. It is at rest and wants to stay that way. Now, because you snap the tray so quickly, the paper roll follows its direction. However, you leave the orange no chance to follow, and the gravity pulls it down into the cup. If you were to pull the tray slower – the orange would follow it.

Feathers in exchange for prizes

While working on this playdate idea, our Keedoo Parrot has lost four feathers 😔 Please help us! Collect them by bringing this idea to life with your kids, and we will gratefully exchange them for valuable prizes.

Try making this experiment
Share your experience on Instagram or Facebook
Mention @getkeedoo in comments
Nominate two families to do the same
We will contact you to add four feathers to your Keedoo account that you can exchange for prizes in our mobile app
Follow @getkeedoo on Instagram to see new prizes

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