Re: How can you walk on eggs without breaking them -- can this be done at all?

Brittany,

Your question is a good one and centers around the concept of pressure. For example, one could obviously not stand upon just one nail without it piercing the skin. yet, if you placed many nails close together, one could stand or lay upon them without breaking the skin. The idea here is that as you increase the surface area, you decrease the pressure.

The same could very well be applicable to your question. Just a few eggs, probably not. Yet it you placed many eggs and stood or layed upon them, they would likely not break. Now, one other issue is that of the eggs structure. it is true that an egg can take a fair amount of pressure if the force is applied as the egg is "vertical". This would also improve the "many egg" scenario as mentioned earlier.

Hope this helps.

Dr. Rutherford :o)

[note added by MadSci Admin: Another way to spread the force out over many eggs (which, as explained above, decreases the pressure on each egg) would be to place a piece of plywood (or other flat, stiff material) over a bunch of eggs. Then, if you step on the plywood, the pressure on each egg would be small enough that none would probably break.]