Parker 1
Isabella Parker
Mrs. Tatum/Mr. Holder
2nd Period Honors Physics
11/19/19
Concussion Argumentative Essay
Many sports players have become injured with concussions. They are the main injury in
high school sports, and a common injury if college or professional sports. We were tasked with
creating a helmet design that would help prevent these injuries. Some elements of my design
were good, and some elements were bad. I had parts that could be incorporated into a helmet,
and some that could not. Because of this, I do not believe that my helmet would be a good
solution for the problem.
When a concussion occurs, “the brain has made contact with your skull” (Pearce Stevens,
2018). Many concussions that happen in high school sports are not noticed at first, and
“63%...are caused by tackling” (CDC, 2019). I tried to model my “helmet” with stability and
rigidity, so that the egg would not hit the sides of the helmet. I believed the “brain” would then
be stable. My design for the first drop had a shock mount for the egg made out of straws. My
idea behind this was that the egg wouldn’t move as much, and most of the energy would be
distributed on the cardboard box surrounding it. In a helmet, the padding acts in a similar
function (Blount, 2012). I thought the straws with the cardboard box would be enough to stop the
egg, but I forgot how Newton’s first law of motion works. I did not remember that the egg yolk
would keep moving in the egg just like the brain would in your skull. Also, I forgot about
Newton’s third law: every action has an equal, but opposite reaction. The ground pushed on the
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helmet just as the helmet pushed on the ground. As it hit the ground, this caused the yolk to
move around more as well (NSF, 2017). This is why some people still get concussions, even
with the most advanced helmets.
Even though my helmet was not the most advanced, my egg stayed intact. Even though
the 5g and 15g sensors went off, the egg may not have gotten a concussion. And when I added
actual padding to the bottom and sides around the egg, the egg experienced less Gs. The 5g
sensor still went off, though. Kevin Guskiewicz tells football players that they shouldn’t lower
their heads during hits, because it increases the risk of getting a concussion from the hit
(Derewicz, 2008). Based off the direction my egg fell, it landed on what would have been the top
of the head of the player. I did very little to help lessen the impact of the ground on the egg. If I
had added more padding, the design might have been good enough to stop a concussion.
The outside of my “helmet” was mostly sharp corners and angles and wasn’t very tight
on the egg itself. A normal football helmet is supposed to be “snug with no spaces between the
pads and the athlete’s head” (CDC, 2018). There was about an inch gap between the walls and
egg on every side. This made the egg vulnerable to being thrown around and possibly breaking.
The egg did not break even with this vulnerability.
If my helmet had been tighter, with more padding, and kept the shock mount, the egg
would most likely not have gotten a concussion. That is how most football helmets are made
today. This is what keeps football players from not getting concussions when they do not hit
themselves on the top of their heads. It will even help prevent concussions from getting hit on
other parts of your head. This is what lowers the amount of concussions that happen during
contact sports.
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My helmet had some good elements, but it was poor execution. If I adjusted my design, it
would work more efficiently. However, if you would like to not have a concussion, it would be
better to stick with the professionally designed helmets.
Parker 4
References
Alison Pearce Stevens. (2019, November 15). Explainer: What is a concussion? Retrieved from
https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/explainer-what-concussion
Blount: A better football helmet. (2012, December 18). Retrieved from
https://www.espn.com/racing/story/_/id/8759901/dean-sicking-turns-attention-football-
nfl-racing-nascar
Marc Derewicz. Where g-force and gray matter meet. (2008, May 14). Retrieved from
http://endeavors.unc.edu/spr2008/football_concussions.php
Football Helmet Fact Sheet. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.cdc.gov/headsup/pdfs/helmets/headsup_helmetfactsheet_football_508.pdf
HEADS UP to School Sports: Athletes. (2019, August 26). Retrieved from
https://www.cdc.gov/headsup/highschoolsports/athletes.html
Newton's Third Law in Football. (2017). Retrieved from
https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/football/newtonthirdlaw.jsp
