Eggcitement
The Journey North gang was here today, and we had a blast. This project gets more fun week after week. All the lines on our photoperiod graph are close to converging at the 12-hour mark now, and we are starting to have guesses about the latitude of some of the mystery cities.
With the equinox fast approaching—and falling during Holy Week, when we’re taking a week off from meeting—I wanted to tell the kids today about the Egg Experiment so they could try it during our break. You know, it’s the thing about how on the spring and fall equinoxes, you’re supposed to be able to stand an egg on its end. I got out an egg for us to experiment with…
…and they took turns giving it a try, and I told them all about how the egg will only balance on its end on the equinox, not any other time of the y—
Um.
Natalie says:
I hate it when that happens…
So, were you able to find out what caused the egg to balance?
On March 12, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Kim says:
Must be either a very fresh of old egg. Maybe? I dunno, just trying to give some reasoning to the situation. 🙂
On March 13, 2008 at 5:36 am
Melissa Wiley says:
My friend Sue passed along this link with an explanation and some fascinating history on egg balancing!
FindArticles – The great egg-balancing mystery – the tricks behind making an egg stand on its broad end
Skeptical Inquirer, May-June, 1996, by Martin Gardner
On March 13, 2008 at 6:49 am
Steve says:
“Sometimes you get the bear, and…”
On March 14, 2008 at 11:14 pm
lynnie says:
I remember doing that with my son and his best friend one equinox many years ago. They were thrilled to see it worked. Later, someone on my homeschool e-list posted a link to scientist’s page about how you can balance an egg any old time of year.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/egg_spin.html
On March 18, 2008 at 2:45 am
Robin says:
We did this in our Journey North class too. But we were very frustrated that we couldn’t get the egg to stand up. Then I read a different JN page that explained why we couldn’t get it up.
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/EgguinoxDiscuss.html
Btw, I love your blog. I really like the way you have it set up!
On March 24, 2008 at 5:11 am