martinzoo

Some people believe that there is a special kind of “balance” on the equinoxes, a force that can make a raw egg balance on its own end!

Do you think this is true? Is there some sort of cosmic “balance” that makes eggs stand on their own on the equinoxes, but not on other days? Is there a scientific way for us to test this?

One week before the equinox we did this “eggsperiment”

Materials Needed:

• Eggs (raw, in the shell)
• A smooth flat surface (and a steady hand)
• Confidence your kids will not break the eggs

Follow These Steps

1. 1. Before beginning the experiment, have students record their initial hypothesis in their journal. (Is there some special force that exists on the equinox that allows eggs to balance on end?)
      Use enough eggs so that there is one egg per child.
      Mark each egg, so each group uses the same egg in all tests (we made a cute little face with a sharpie pen).
      On a flat surface, have your child try to balance their egg on end. Then they should record their results. This experiment should be performed once a week for two weeks before the equinox, then on the equinox, and then for two weeks after the equinox. Be sure to refrigerate the eggs between experiments!

Here is a video to document our procedure and conclusions.

We tried the eggsperiment again after the equinox on Friday and Saturday. But we had no success. And, in fact, I looked it up online to see if other folks had been able to accomplish this amazing feat. I found this web page from 1999. We were kinda bummed. Because we thought there must be a way for us to be able to get it done.
So, then we thought that maybe it was the particular egg that we chose. We then proceeded to try the experiment on all the eggs in our carton: no go. It just didn’t work. Maybe there is a special technique, but we just don’t have it.

Anyway, I think for the next few months, periodically, we will give it a try with other eggs, just to see if we may get the results that Mr. Allen did.

Until then, I guess we mark this down as another failed experiment.

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On a totally different topic…….. Don’t you think our video turned out cool? Other than GB referring to the equinox as an eclipse…LOL!