[Apes]

> They dropped 60 eggs each from three different heights (8, 9, and 10 millimeters)

Based on the photos, they measured this as the distance from the surface of the edge to the surface they were dropping it onto.

But for the vertical egg drop, the center of mass is several millimeters higher than for the horizontal drop, a pretty significant difference when you're only dropping 10mm at the most.

Maybe I'm missing something, but based on how they set up the experiment, maybe they're not measuring how resistant the egg is in certain positions, but instead just measuring that higher potential energy is more likely to break an egg?

[meatmanek]

Unless the egg rotates significantly during the fall, the distance from the floor to the bottom surface of the egg determines the potential energy that could go into falling speed before the egg hits the floor. In order to fall further, the egg either needs to have already cracked or to roll once hitting the floor (unlikely to cause cracking if the initial impact didn't).

[nojs]

> over half of the eggs broke when dropped vertically from an 8-millimeter (31-inch) height

Something went wrong with the units I think

[tbrownaw]

8mm is a bit under a third of an inch (25.4mm), so someone dropped the decimal point.

[rawgabbit]

I think they meant 8 meters as they showed someone dropping eggs from a bucket truck.

[tbrownaw]

They mention the eggs cracking a middling fraction of the time.

Just now, dropping an egg about a finger-width onto whatever my kitchen counter is made of did indeed leave a small crack, so part is an inch is about right.

[haiku2077]

https://xkcd.com/3065