Stand an egg on Spring Equinox

[Fazor]

I tried right now which is march 20, 2007 and to tell u the truth it did not work. but i have one question did my teacher lie cause she said a long time ago she tried it and it worked does im not doin right its a lie she made up??????

I doubt she lied; it's possible to stand an egg on end any day of the year. My understanding of why this myth is perpetuated is because of "self-fulfilling prophecy"

People think it's only possible to stand an egg on end on this day, so on the equanox they will sit and try until they get it to stand. Any other day, they think it's impossible. So when it fails on the first attempt or two, they give up because they (falsely) "know" it's impossible to stand it on end if it's not the equanox.

That's my understanding from an article i read last year, anyway.

[jsuttile]

Good thoughts....and I agree, but what makes me even more crazy...see my post...is the explanation given...that the yolk sinks to the bottom lowering the center of gravity when in actuality, it is the white that is more dense than the lipid yolk and it sinks....leaving the yolk to float slightly higher in the egg.

[HenrikOlsen]

Ok, so instead of having the yolk sinking to the bottom, lowering the center of gravity, the real explanation is that the yolk rises to the top, lowering the center of gravity.

Since the result in both case is that the center of gravity ends up lower, thus making it easier to stand the egg, it is still self fulfillment, with one detail missed.

[jsuttile]

so basically, you are fine with all that missinformation being put out there? My biggest problem with the yolk sinking theory is the emperor's new clothes mentality. If someone says it's so, it must be even though common sense...if people bother to use it...doesn't come into play at all. I want my students to recognize that is something doesn't make sense, they should question it. Then they will grow up to be intellingent adults, not sheep following whatever anyone tells them. The big picture is much more important than realizing that yolks are less dense than albumen.......

[HenrikOlsen]

The central part of the argument is that over time the center of gravity moves lower thus making it easier to balance the egg if you believe you can balance the egg than if you give up earlier because you don't.

That the hypothesis for the mechanism for this lowered center of gravity has a flaw resulting from bad data (relative densities of yolk and white) does not invalidate it as an explanation for different success rates of believers and disbelievers, and I would expect it to get fixed in new editions.

[jsuttile]

I totally agree with the self-fulfilling prophecy aspect, with the belief and confidence that you can accomplish anything if you try hard enough and they are all good aspects of the egg balancing , but the error in logic about the relative densities still persists and it doesn't look like it's ever going to get corrected. I first heard it about about 10 years ago and wondered how people could accept that yolk sinking thing. I waited for corrections to come from such usually valid sources as National Geographic for Kids, Weekly Reader...but they never did. I just picked up the fight again...Mythbusters mentions it several times while balancing the eggs....and hope that the lesson of thinking for yourself gets out there. This whole misconception and mythbusting drive is not to prove who knows more about minute details than whom, but to....I hope...encourage our youth...and our adults...to use their brains and not accept what they are told by whatever authority. Otherwise, we are doomed to a society of mediocrity......