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Classical dynamics

Spinning eggs — a paradox resolved

Nature volume 416, pages 385–386 (2002)Cite this article

An explanation for an odd egg performance is rolled out in time for Easter.

Abstract

If a hard-boiled egg is spun sufficiently rapidly on a table with its axis of symmetry horizontal, this axis will rise from the horizontal to the vertical. (A raw egg, by contrast, when similarly spun, will not rise.) Conversely, if an oblate spheroid is spun sufficiently rapidly with its axis of symmetry vertical, it will rise and spin about the vertical on its rounded edge with its axis of symmetry now rotating in a horizontal plane. In both cases, the centre of gravity rises; here we provide an explanation for this paradoxical behaviour, through derivation of a first-order differential equation for the inclination of the axis of symmetry.

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Figure 1: An axisymmetric body with centre of mass O spins on a horizontal table with point of contact P.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Silver Street, Cambridge, CB3 9EW, UK

    H. K. Moffatt

  2. Department of Physics, Keio University, Hiyoshi, 223-8521, Yokohama, Japan

    Y. Shimomura

Authors
  1. H. K. Moffatt
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  2. Y. Shimomura
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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Moffatt, H., Shimomura, Y. Spinning eggs — a paradox resolved. Nature 416, 385–386 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/416385a

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