The Best Way to Crack an Egg Using Physics

The Best Way to Crack an Egg Using Physics

Paige Giffault

I'm sure everyone has cracked several, if not countless, eggs in their lives. There are those annoying and extremely time consuming occurrences when you crack the egg and accidentally drop some eggshells into the bowl. There are also time when you crack it and it just spills everywhere. Well, using a few basic physics principles, you have solved the problem of how to crack the egg perfectly.



Cracking an egg, like any object, requires a certain amount of force. Now, with something as fragile and thin as an eggshell, the amount of force used is very important. With too much force, the egg will spill everywhere, and with too little, the shell won't completely break. Positing of the applied force is also very important. According to materials scientist from Duke University, Volker Blum, "you want to initiate a crack at the flattest part of the egg, which is the middle".

The center of the egg is the weakest part of the egg. This is where you would want to break is because this is where the limit beyond which they cannot absorb more force, or its breaking point is. Unlike the top and bottom of the egg, which are the strongest part of the shell and have the most curvature, the middle is flat and therefore easier to break.

Sinan Keten, a mechanical engineer at Northwestern University compares the curvature of the top and bottom of an egg to an archway. He says that like an egg, an arch is able to hold a lot of weight without breaking because of the weight is distributed. Likewise, the shell's curves at the top and bottom are able to withstand more applied force because they can evenly distribute the pressure. 

So, now you know that in order to crack an egg perfectly, you must do it right down the middle and with the right amount of force!!