Monday, January 30, 2006

Unbelievable Egg Trick

That's 'unbelievable' as in, 'any claim to have done this successfully is unbelievable.' The trick is possible, but it takes months of dedicated practice. You think it's hard reaching your black belt in Karate?

You will need:

Two sherry glasses. The flared kind your Auntie has.
An egg. Hard-boiled if you're nervous. It's probably best to wash it, eggs being as they are.
Approximately infinite patience.

The Challenge:

Place the sherry glasses side-by-side. In theory they can be several centimetres apart, but let's not make this any harder than it already is: have them touching. Now place the egg in one of the glasses.
Your challenge is simple: blow the egg from one glass into the other. No, really.

What's going on?

You might think there's a knack, a secret that makes the trick easy. Perhaps you blow over the top of the egg, so the curved surface acts like a wing and the reduced pressure sucks it upwards? Go on, try it.
Doesn't work, does it?
Maybe you arrange the egg more-pointy-end-up, then blow straight down on it, hoping the airflow will... nope, that doesn't work, either.
No, you just have to blow ludicrously hard. Ah, but there is a bit of a technique. Look closely at the point where the egg touches the glass - that's where you're aiming to blow. Blow hard enough, and you'll tip the egg aside, just a little. That lets the air rush into the glass and get underneath the egg. That excess pressure will then neatly pop the egg out of the glass. Eggs are quite heavy and you wouldn't think you could blow one upwards, but applying enough air pressure in the right place, you can.
It seems to help a little if the egg is placed pointy-end down, and tilted towards you, very slightly. Then it seems more inclined to rock away from you, allowing the air into the glass.
It takes only a few hours' practice to be able to do the trick consistently, if by 'consistent' you mean 'about one time in twenty.' But then, you have to become sufficiently good at it that you can make the egg land in the other glass.
Good luck. If anyone can manage this on anything like a consistent basis, I'll be overwhelmingly impressed. But I'll need video evidence of your claim.
Oh, and if you're really good at it, you can make the egg somersault while it's in mid-air. There. That should keep you busy until next week.

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