Tatiana wrote:I think it's cool that this site educates people about astronomy, and people who read it every day over time end up understanding a whole lot more about the universe. Part of that involves debunking people's misconceptions. The egg balancing-on-the-equinox trick is one of those. The preferred method of egg-balancing for tricksters in my house is to start with a small pile of salt, balance the egg on the salt, then gently blow away the salt leaving only those grains that are trapped under the egg keeping it balanced. That way nobody can see the remaining salt and the egg seems to be suspended on its own.
Part of learning about astronomy is learning what's NOT true that people believed throughout history, like learning the difference between astronomy and astrology, learning that comets don't really portend the death of kings, and so on. It's strange to me that so many people feel intuitively that whatever happens in the sky profoundly affects us here on earth, but they don't really want to learn about the rest of the universe outside our planet, what's really out there.
They don't care that there are near earth orbit asteroids that could take us out some day, and that we need to get rid of them as soon as possible. They don't want to hear that the Sun is a slightly variable star that could vary over time and change our climate substantially. And they don't seem to want to realize how very, very small we are compared to the rest of the universe. All the REAL ways in which the universe matters, people often don't seem to care that much about. Instead they want to believe that where the sun is relative to the stars and planets at the instant a person was born affects the person's personality. Huh?
So anyway, I'm glad for APODs like this one. =)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080921.html
Light yolk slowly rises => center of gravity drops => egg balances?
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The specific gravity of all four parts of the egg are different:
shell, 2.325
shell membranes, 1.075
albumen, 1.038
yolk, 1.032
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Humpty Dumpty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty
<<Humpty Dumpty is a character in a Nursery rhyme typically portrayed as an egg. Most English-speaking children are familiar with the rhyme:
. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
. All the king's horses and all the king's men
. Couldn't put Humpty together again.
It should be noted that it is not stated in the rhyme that Humpty Dumpty is an egg. In its first printed form in 1810, the rhyme is posed as a riddle and exploits for misdirection the fact that "humpty dumpty" was also 18th-Century reduplicative slang for a short and clumsy person; the riddle being that whereas a clumsy person falling off a wall would not be irreparably damaged, an egg would be.
Previous to the "little, clumsy person" meaning, "humpty dumpty" referred to a drink of brandy boiled with ale. There are also various theories of an original "Humpty Dumpty". As some are mutually exclusive, the theories necessarily include false etymologies.
. * According to an insert taken from the East Anglia Tourist Board in England, Humpty Dumpty was a powerful cannon used in the Siege of Colchester during the English Civil War. It was mounted on top of the St Mary's at the Wall Church in Colchester defending the city against siege in the summer of 1648. Although Colchester was a royalist stronghold, it was besieged by the Roundheads for 11 weeks before finally falling. The church tower was hit by enemy cannon fire and the top of the tower was blown off, sending "Humpty" tumbling to the ground. Naturally all the King's horses and all the King's men (royalist cavalry and infantry respectively) tried to mend "him" but in vain. Other reports have Humpty Dumpty referring to a sniper nicknamed One-Eyed Thompson, who occupied the same church tower.
. Visitors to Colchester can see the reconstructed Church tower as they reach the top of Balkerne Hill on the left hand side of the road. An extended version of the rhyme gives additional verses, including the following:
. . In Sixteen Hundred and Forty-Eight
. . When England suffered the pains of state
. . The Roundheads lay siege to Colchester town
. . Where the King's men still fought for the crown
. . There One-Eyed Thompson stood on the wall
. . A gunner of deadliest aim of all
. . From St. Mary's Tower his cannon he fired
. . Humpty-Dumpty was its name
. . Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall...
. * In another theory, Humpty Dumpty referred to King Richard III of England, the hunchbacked monarch, the "Wall" being either the name of his horse (called "White Surrey" in Shakespeare's play), or a reference to the supporters who deserted him. During the battle of Bosworth Field, he fell off his steed and was said to have been "hacked into pieces".
. * The story of Cardinal Wolsey's downfall is supposedly depicted in the children's nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty. At length Cawood Castle (Cawood, a village in Yorkshire, seven miles southwest of York) passed to Cardinal Wolsey, who let it fall into disrepair in the early part of his career (1514 - 1530), due to his residence at the Court, devotion to temporal affairs and his neglect of his diocesan duties. King Henry VIII sent Wolsey back home in 1523 after he failed to obtain a divorce from the Pope - a huge mistake on Wolsey's part. Wolsey returned to the castle and began to restore it to its former grandeur. However, he was arrested for high treason in November, 1530 and ordered to London for trial. He left on 6 November, but took ill at Leicester and died in the Abbey there on 29 November.
. * An explanation given on a British radio programme described Humpty Dumpty as a siege tower, used by the Cavaliers (King's Men) during the English civil war. Unfortunately, as it was poorly designed, the tower often toppled over when it was full of men and broke. Hence, "All the King's horses and all the King's men, couldn't put Humpty together again."
. * In another twist Humpty Dumpty was the name of a cannon which was upon the wall of Edinburgh Castle (dates and times unclear)and that the cannon one day (while firing) exploded into a thousand pieces, scattering bits of it far and wide with whatever was left in a shattered heap at the bottom of the wall.
Humpty appears in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, where he discusses semantics and pragmatics with Alice. Among other things, he (mis-)explains the difficult words from Jabberwocky. Like all of the characters in the story (aside from those who feature within the Jabberwocky poem itself) he is a Chess-piece, or more specifically the Red Rook, and his falling from the wall with a "very heavy crash [which shakes] the forest from end to end" represents his being "taken" by a piece on the White side.>>
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Alice waited a minute to see if [Humpty Dumpty] would speak again, but as he never opened his eyes or took any further notice of her, she said `Good-bye!' once more, and, getting no answer to this, she quietly walked away: but she couldn't help saying to herself as she went, `Of all the unsatisfactory -- ' (she repeated this aloud, as it was a great comfort have such a long word to say) `of all the unsatisfactory people I ever met -- ' She never finished the sentence, for at this moment a heavy crash shook the forest from end to end.
.
The next moment soldiers came running through the wood, at first in twos and threes, then ten or twenty together, and at last in such crowds that they seemed to fill the whole forest. Alice got behind a tree, for fear of being run over, and watched them go by.
.
She thought that in all her life she had never seen soldiers so uncertain on their feet: they were always tripping over something or other, and whenever one went down, several more always fell over him, so that the ground was soon covered with little heaps of men.
.
Then came the horses. Having four feet, these managed rather better than the foot-soldiers: but even they stumbled now and then; and it seemed to be a regular rule that, whenever a horse stumbled the rider fell off instantly. The confusion got worse every moment, and Alice was very glad to get out of the wood into an open place, where she found the White King seated on the ground, busily writing in his memorandum-book.
.
`I've sent them all!' the King cried in a tone of delight, on seeing Alice. `Did you happen to meet any soldiers, my dear, as you came through the wood?'
.
`Yes, I did,' said Alice: several thousand, I should think.'
.
`Four thousand two hundred and seven, that's the exact number,' the King said, referring to his book. `I couldn't send all the horses, you know, because two of them are wanted in the game. And I haven't sent the two Messengers, either.'
Vincent Price Strikes From Afar -----
good to know you're still alive 