Polyethylene Foam Lab Report

Purpose/Question This lab was made to find out what the possible methods are, such as sand in a plastic container with a piece of black polyethylene foam inside the lid, to protect an egg from a two meter drop on a hard floor. What effect does a container of sand have from a two meter drop on a hard floor with an egg halfway buried inside the sand?
Background
In class we learned that impulse is the change of momentum of an object when that same object is acted upon by a force for a period of time: Impulse = force x time = F△t. We also know that momentum is a measure of motion coming from a moving object, or p=mv.1 It is also known that the acceleration due to the force of gravity on Earth is equal to 9.81 m/s2, where the experiment will be performed.2
Materials
Plastic container
Sand
Black polyethylene foam
Raw egg
2 meter sticks (combine as 1)
Triple beam balance scale
Calculator
Procedure
A plastic container, the ones Chinese take-out restaurants use, was taken from the kitchen. The container was very similar to this one found on Google Images:

The container was filled with Brookstone Sand, about ¾ of the sand was used.
(Container and sand has a mass of 1kg)
The small square piece of polyethylene foam goes under the lid to act as a cushion on the top of the egg.

The lid is closed, then weighed on the triple beam balance.

As a result, the momentum of the container was 1.13 kg*ms, and the impulse was calculated as 2.22 Ns, or 0.22638 kg, which is quite a heavy impact on the container, seeing as why the container cracked on the bottom when it smashed on the ground. Although this an error that will be discussed in the next section, the egg was still safe from the impact, and this is most likely from the kinetic sand absorbing the fall and cushioning the egg, which was the most effective part of the