the spin of an egg

[sergebroom]

"Physicists have demonstrated that spinning a hard-boiled egg horizontally makes it jump into the air."
- Science News, May 27, 2006, page 333.

Comments

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

On which axis?

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Which eggsis?

The brief article wasn't quite clear, but I think the egg was standing on its fat end.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

This should be of interest to the Lilliputians.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Or it might make their War with Blefuscu even more savage if their dilemma has to take into account that eggs also start flying off before the small end or the fat end is chopped open.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

That's true!

[readinggeek451]

Isn't that vertically, not horizontally?

*is confused*

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Me too. The article said nothing about which axis, but I think you're right, in spite of what I said earlier to Fragano. Still, that's bad writing (says Serge to hide his embarassment), especially considering that, later on, the article is more precise about tests using aluminum eggs mechanically spun: an altitude of a fraction of a millimeter, for a few hundredths of a second.

Not exactly a situation where people ar elikely to exclaim Look! Up in the sky! It's...