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Egg Crusher

Purpose

To show that an egg can support unexpectedly high forces due to its curved shape.

Equipment

Egg crusher, eggs, and six lead bricks, as photographed.

Suggestions

A foam rubber "lead brick" will be furnished on request. Scare the dickens out of your students by throwing the foam rubber brick into the group during the demonstration.◙

Setup Time

5 min. (1 day to furnish the egg.)

Images

b4-33

Description

An egg is positioned vertically between the "egg crusher" base and top cylinder. The two surfaces are ◙coated with heavy rubber discs to distribute the load. Up to 150 lbs of lead bricks (6 bricks) can be placed on the platform without breaking the egg. A dramatic finish to the exxperiment (other than the egg unexpectedly rupturing) is to unload the bricks and drop the egg about 6" onto a hard surface, which will smash the egg. ◙

References

(PIRA unavailable.)