Pringles Ring STEM Challenge | Can you build a ring using only Pringles chips?
Scholars at Meadow Hill School performed The Pringles Ring STEM Challenge. An engineering challenge in which students create a ring using only Pringles chips, no tape
or glue allowed! The challenge requires a lot of patience as well as careful and precise chip placement. Although, the hardest part of the challenge is not eating all of the chips
before finishing the ring.
Before the challenge we had the students plan out their chip ring design. We asked the students some of the following questions in order to help them
process through the challenge:
How will the base of your ring be able to support the top?
Will you layer your chips in a certain pattern? If so, what pattern?
What other strategies will you try if your first design doesn’t work as planned?
As they were working they realized the physics of the Pringles, as the sides of the ring got taller, gravity pushes down on the chips causing them to slide down. In order for the
chips to not slide, there must be enough frictional force on the sides of the chips so that gravity can’t push it down.
Story and photos provided by Ms. Trisha Dickson.
