Pringles Chip Challenge

By: Joaquín Zúñiga and Matthew Millington

What’s the challenge?

• We need to send a single Pringles chip to Conant High School through USPS.

• The constraints include:– The chip must remain intact– The package must fit into a USPS package– Must be lightweight– Must be edible after arriving

• We must collaborate with students at Conant, which was the main point of this project.

Research

Research

• Company basics:• Origin: Cincinnati• Year Founded: 1968• Worth 1 billion U.S. Dollars• The shape of the chip, and it’s Container:• The Shape: Hyperbolic Paraboloid• KEY: Uses both the Hyperbolic, and the Elliptic

types of Parabaloids

• Shape Equation: z= Ax^2 + By^2 

Hyperbolic Parabaloid

Possible Ideas

• We had two main ideas:– The first was to get a container, put the chip inside of

said container, then fill the container with some substance.

– For the substance we thought of:• Gelatin• Cotton Balls• Peanut Butter

Possible Ideas (Cont.)

• Our other idea was to make a containers made of symmetrical pieces with a small portion of it hollow to fit the chip

• Materials we thought of using were: – Expanded Poly Propylene – Memory Foam– Lexan– Polyisocyrate– Polystyrene

• Our final decision was to use Polystyrene

Decision Matrix

Decision Matrix

Durability

• 1: Not very durable and will break easily.• 2: Will last for a little bit but will still break pretty

easily.• 3: Mediocre. Will survive some of the things it

will have to undergo.• 4: Will not break easily • 5: Basically guaranteed to not break

Accessibility

• 1: Extremely hard to find. A rare resource• 2: Only a few places will have this material.• 3: Can be found some places and don’t have to go

out of the way to find.• 4: Can be found in most stores• 5: Can be found almost anywhere and would be

very easy to obtain.

Cost

• 1: Extremely expensive. Not within our price range.

• 2: Cost more than most supplies.• 3: Okay pricing, not super cheap but not super

expensive.• 4: Can be purchased for a small amount.• 5: They’re basically giving it away.

Feasibility

• 1: Hard to make. Extremely complicated and a long process

• 2: Will take time and patience to put together• 3: Some complexity but fairly easy to put together.

Most people can do it• 4: Easy to put together but may take some time.

Anyone could do it• 5: Extremely simple to put together and can be

done very quickly

Sketches

Sketches Cont.

Testing

Testing

• Our testing contributed of 4 parts:

1. Throwing the box at a wall three times

2. Throwing it down from one story to another

3. Stacking things on it

4. Having a 16 year old boy sit on it• The chip survived all 4 tests, except for a little

chip on the chip after the first test

Testing Videos

Bibliography

• www.usps.com• www.pringles.com• www.loews.com