When I designed my vessel I knew inertia would cause the egg to continue to want to fall. I also knew that it would not accelerate at a great speed so I had to create a vessel that would contract and adjust easily. That's why I used a sponge and cotton to soften the impact of the egg. Then I simply held it together with a rubber band. With this construction I was able to build a vessel that safely carried my egg.
The stored energy in this contraption seemed to lie at the sponge. Were when I picked it up and threw it, I knew that the sponge was more dense then the egg so there was a lot of potential energy waiting to squash the sponge. Of course there was a lot of kinetic energy as I threw it into the air so I didn't throw it to high into the air otherwise the vessels acceleration falling down would have been a higher speed, resulting into a possible catastrophic event. So the mechanical energy was evenly distributed. I used Newton's first law of motion, inertia, to create a vessel that would save the egg from destruction due to inertia.
We use potential and kinetic knowledge to determine whether a car could drive up a hill or how fast a ball would roll down my driveway. Both of these ways represent physics and how we use this to solve equations. All though these questions probably don't get asked by kids. It's important to know that when designing contraptions like cars or even swimming flippers, you need to know how much kinetic or potential energy will be available.
