Some of the egg-launching contraptions Lakeview Academy freshmen tested Thursday were a smash hit. Others weren’t such good eggs.

Ninth-grade physics teacher Marvin Clarke said the annual physics project requires pairs of student to use their knowledge of angles and tension forces to build a machine that launches a raw egg at least 25 yards without it exploding until ground impact. Students also wrote reports and drew diagrams explaining the physics properties and formulas that make their machines work.

"Science is a dreaded class by most students, so we try to incorporate some fun things and let them get creative," Clarke said.

He said parents also are invited to partake in the machine building, and roughly 20 parents showed up Thursday afternoon to see how their work fared against the competition.

Lakeview freshmen Walker Adams and Thomas Paris built their Egg-Z-Cuter contraption using a cannon technique that propelled an egg by a pressurized 10-gallon air tank.

"We knew the more time the pressure built up, the further it launched," Thomas said.

Their egg soared about 50 yards before it crashed onto Lakeview’s lawn. Freshmen Alex Turnage and Fallon Johnakin’s Eggulator 5000 rivaled the Egg-Z-Cuter with a roughly 50-yard launch.

"We wanted to show the guys the girls could do this, too; that we’re not dumb blondes," Fallon said. "We showed them."