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Re: Balancing Eggs



Last night a student in my astronomy class came up with a new one--at
least to me.

She asked why it is that a raw egg can be balanced on end with relative
ease only at or near the summer solstice. I told her I had never heard
that bit of folk lore and couldn't immediatly see any reason for this to
happen. Several other students said they had heard somthing similar to
this but no one had any real details and no one claimed to have actually
tried it.

Couldn't think of a better place to go than phys-l for some insight on
this.

Paul Middents
Olympic College
Bremerton, WA

This TOTALLY WRONG. It is at the EQUINOXES that egg balancing is done!
(Of course, it is NO easier at any particular day or season, but the
equinox time has been touted as when the gravitational force of the sun is
balanced because of its position over the equator.) It is indeed some of
the less reputable 'folk lore' that abounds.

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Chuck Britton Education is what is left when
britton@odie.ncssm.edu you have forgotten everything
North Carolina School of Science & Math you learned in school.
(919) 286-3366 x224 Albert Einstein, 1936