Joey Green's Mad Scientist

Falling Egg

What You Need

Clean, empty glass jar
Water
Food coloring
8-inch square piece of cardboard
Empty aspirin bottle
Fresh egg

What to Do
Fill the jar halfway with water and add three drops of food coloring. Place the piece of cardboard over the mouth of the jar. Place the aspirin bottle in the center of the cardboard directly over the center of the jar. Place the egg point first into the aspirin bottle. Hold the jar firmly with one hand, and quickly pull the piece of cardboard straight out from under the aspirin bottle.

What Happens
The aspirin bottle tumbles off and the egg drops into the jar of water.

Why It Works
As Sir Isaac Newton's first law states: "Objects at rest want to remain at rest, and objects in motion want to remain in motion." The stationary egg wants to remain at rest, but once its support is pulled out from under it, gravity pulls the egg straight down into the jar of water.

Bizarre Facts

Newton's first law also explains how a skilled magician can pull a tablecloth out from under a fully set dinner table.
Eggs do not crush under the weight of a mother bird as she sits on the nest because when a force is applied to an egg, the curve of the egg distributes the force over a wide area away from the point of contact.
You can spin a hard-boiled egg in place on a flat surface. A raw egg will wobble.
In 1979, David Donoghue dropped fresh eggs from a helicopter 650 feet above a golf course in Tokyo, Japan. The eggs remained intact.
Dale Lyons of Meriden, Great Britain, holds the world record for running while carrying an egg on a spoon. On April 23, 1990, he ran 26 miles 385 yards in 3 hours 47 minutes.
On March 23, 1991, Meals on Wheels PLUS of Manatee, Florida, held the biggest Easter egg hunt on record in the United States using 120,000 plastic and candy eggs.

The Squeeze on Eggs
If you hold an egg in your palm and then try to squeeze your hand into a fist, you will not crush the egg.

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