Flying Eggs
This puzzle was in last week’s homework.
Puzzle. How can an egg fly three meters and not break?
The expected answer:
- The egg flew more than 3 meters and broke afterward.
Some students tried to protect the egg:
- The egg was bubble-wrapped.
- The egg was dropped on a cushion.
- The egg was thrown up, then caught.
- The egg was thrown into water.
- My favorite: The egg used a parachute.
Other students specified qualities of an egg making it more resistant:
- The egg was hard-boiled.
- The egg was made of plastic.
- The egg was a frog egg.
- An educated answer: It could be an ostrich egg, which is extremely strong. (I checked that online, and, indeed, a human can stand on an ostrich egg without breaking it.)
- My favorite: The egg was fried.
Here are some more elaborate explanations:
- The egg flew on a plane.
- The egg was thrown on another planet with low gravity.
- The egg was thrown in space and will orbit the Earth forever.
- My favorite: The egg was not birthed yet: it flew inside a chicken.
To conclude this essay, here is a punny answer:
- The egg was confident, not easy to break by throwing around.
Isaac Grosof:
When I aas twelve, my summer camp held a competition: pairs of kids would throw eggs back and forth, trying to throw the eggs as far a possible without breaking them. My partner and I won the competition, reaching a throw-catch distance of about 8 meters before the throw where the egg broke. The secret was to accelerate and decelerate the egg in a smooth and gradual fashion, during the throw and catch.
17 November 2022, 1:17 am