Professor Yutaka Nishiyama of Osaka University asked the question and came up with a mathematical formula to describe the shape of chicken eggs and their properties, such as the way they tilt on a flat surface.
Great advice, just in time for an Easter egg roll! Kees Moeliker of Improbable Research says bird species' different egg shapes are adaptive for their different nesting habits. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user bleu celt)
This tilt, he explains, means that eggs don’t roll nearly as well as spheres do, and instead tend to self-stabilise on gentle slopes. Thus complementing the mathematical focus with a biological / evolutionary one…
For, it’s suggested, ovoid eggs may have an advantage over spherical ones (in that they don’t roll so well). And thus, species of birds which lay a clutch of eggs on say, gently sloping rocky outcrops, may have a better chance of survival. Either way, the professor urges further investigations in egg-rolling - using a gently-sloping tabletop, and an un-boiled ‘ovoid’ egg. “I’d like for those readers who have until now had no interest in the shape of eggs to begin by confirming this experimentally.”
Great advice, just in time for an Easter egg roll! Kees Moeliker of Improbable Research says bird species' different egg shapes are adaptive for their different nesting habits. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user bleu celt)
Because if they were cubic it would be much painful... ;p
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Not a big leap of reasoning. Birds that nest on cliff sides often lay eggs that are nearly conical, so they have an even shorter rolling radius.
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