Event Overview
Each team designs and pre-builds one elastic bungee cord. At competition, they perform two regulated drops (plus a bonus drop) from a given height, attempting to bring a hanging mass as close as possible to — without touching — a landing surface.
📝 Build component (pre-built bungee cord) combined with precision performance at competition. Returned to event lineup in 2026.
📖 Study Guide
Bungee Drop
Category: Inquiry & Nature of Science
Format: Hybrid (Build + Precision Performance)
2026 Topic: N/A
Participants: 2
What It Is
Bungee Drop is a precision engineering event in which teams pre-design and build a custom elastic bungee cord. At competition, the cord is attached to a mass and dropped from a specified height — the goal is to bring the mass as close as possible to a target surface without touching it.
What to Know
- Elastic potential energy, kinetic energy, and energy conservation
- Hooke's Law and spring/elastic cord mechanics
- Factors affecting bungee cord behavior: cord material, cross-section, length, number of strands
- How to model and predict maximum extension of an elastic cord under a given load
- Sources of error and variability: temperature effects on elasticity, manufacturing variation, drop height precision
- Drop kinematics: free fall, transition to elastic deceleration, oscillation
Competition Format
Teams bring their pre-built bungee cord to the event. Two regulated drops (plus a bonus drop) are performed from a specified height using a given mass. Scoring is based on how close the mass gets to the target surface without touching it. Each drop is measured independently.
Notes
- Returned to the Science Olympiad lineup in 2026 after a period off the rotation.
- Calibration and testing before competition is critical — material behavior must be well-characterized.
- The height and mass used at competition may differ from what teams practiced with, so understanding the underlying physics (not just trial-and-error) is essential.
- No AI tools allowed during competition.