Exploding Easter egg.

Just like the title says . . .

Last year for Easter, a good neighbor whom we're friendly with dropped off a couple of very special hand-carved Easter eggs. (Two, brown, hard-bolied, eggs with intricate designes scratched onto the eggs.) The white scratches were simply amazing. Well, the eggs were kept in a relatively cool place all year. Taken out this year, they were left on the table for several hours. I went to bed. Next thing I know I hear a loud pop! It sounds exactly like a light-bulb exploding. So I check the bulbs. All are fine. By now I'm starting to suspect that my pathetically passive-aggressive upstairs neighbor might have dropped a light-bulb onto the floor.

Most of the time he's actually an O.K. neighbor. Every now & then he gets drunk and feels like doing housework after midnight. Bit more investigating, turns out one of the two eggs from last year literally exploded. I have a sneaking suspicion that the change in temp. and it's age were a big part of the reason why it exploded. I took a look inside what was left of the egg. It was actually white inside. No discoloration, and no foul smell either. Perhaps the change in temp. created pressure on the inside. With no way to slowly release it, pressure built up until the egg exploded. But that's just my theory.

If anyone has another idea, please let me know. Never thought I might need goggles before handling Easter eggs. Never a single issue with my large collection of lights running on CR123 cells. Nor my small collection of models running on 18650 rechargeable cells that aren't sold in stores to the General Public. No, my experience as a flashaholic with something exploding turns out to be an Easter egg. (Go ahead. Laugh! That's what I'm doing.)

two eggs in series like that , asking for trouble. you can get away with it but they have to be balanced.

wouldn't it be a better idea to do the carvings on the egg, skip the hard boiling, and just poke a hole in the bottom and clean the egg white and yolk out?

You might have had a little fermentation in the egg, producing gas and increasing the internal pressure. Or there might have been stress risers that allowed cracks to gradually grow, and the thermal change was just enough to let the cracks go all the way? You might closely inspect the remaining egg for tiny cracks.

Interesting mystery! Let us know if it is solved.

regards,
Steve K.

You seem to indicate there was no residue or any egg white or yolk inside the egg shell.
Wouldn't that indicate the egg had been drained ?
So there must have been a drain hole. Unless it were painted over, and you said the design was scratched
In, so that leaves only the shell itself to craze and explode, due to some sort of tension in the shell
Surface, not internal or external pressure.?

Hmmm...I'm guessing rapid temperature change...like cranking up the defrost on a cold windshield??? But to "explode"??? Know any good paranormalists?

Good stuff though, Mono!

Thanks guys. Just a few points to clear up . . .

@ beerwax ~
They were perfectly balanced, on the display rack. :thumbsup:
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@ Steve k ~
My neighbor loves intricate art. But I don't believe she has the skills required to carve designs into drained eggs. Hard-boiled lets you make such carvings without the worry of applying too much pressure and possibly having the egg break apart. Also, I didn't see any cracks on the remaining egg. But I do own a couple of different pairs of goggles.
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@ TedTheLed ~
Sorry for the confusion, I meant that when I looked inside the egg the hard-boiled inner portion was still intact, and still white. Perfectly preserved. My neighbor didn't drain out the contents. No drain hole.
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@ A.O.W. ~
I know quite a few weird individuals. Go to the medical institue I attend, and toss a SureFire at someone. There you go. You just hit someone very weird. Something is seriously wrong when I'm the normal one within throwing distance, inside a building.

But no paranormalists.

Good stuff would be if one of the fine ladies at the institute wanted to go out for some hot coffee.

so the egg was full . and no little chicks hiding under the table ? if the contents had hardened , then the sudden temperature change would cause the core to expand a little cracking the shell a lot easier than gas expanding . but it would crack not explode ? them fine ladies love hot coffee , you just gotta stop throwing surefires at them.

Monocrom said:

Thanks guys. Just a few points to clear up . . .

@ Steve k ~
My neighbor loves intricate art. But I don't believe she has the skills required to carve designs into drained eggs. Hard-boiled lets you make such carvings without the worry of applying too much pressure and possibly having the egg break apart. Also, I didn't see any cracks on the remaining egg. But I do own a couple of different pairs of goggles.

Click to expand...

my suggestion was to etch them before draining, figuring that a full egg would be a little more resistant to cracking than an empty egg.

Plan B might be to drain the egg and fill it with potting compound or epoxy or something, and then let it cure before etching. To get a little more sophisticated, and use less epoxy, maybe just inject a few teaspoons of epoxy into the empty egg, and then roll it around a little to let the epoxy coat the interior surface. If you could build up a layer that was a few mm thick, that would provide a fair amount of support for the carving.

I kinda like Beerwax's idea of the chick appearing out of the egg. That would be a very long time to hatch, though!

Steve K.

The potting compound or epoxy sounds like a great idea. I'll suggest it to my neighbor when I see her. Thanks.

I'm guessing those must have been lithium eggs in series and they were unevenly charged. Next time stick with alkaline eggs.

And have them leak all over the basket? No thanks. :sick2:

I opened this thread thinking someone's easter eggs filled with homemade tannerite rolled off a balcony and whacked on concrete a couple dozen floors below.

Something tells me its this had to do with temperature... and that the culprit was either a faulty relief valve or a defective zipper... :thinking:

Agreed on the temperature change. When it was cool, it must have been cool enough to not emit gas or emit it very slowly..when the temp. Increased.....who farted? :welcome:

(. Wrong gas but the principle's similar)

Ultrafire eggs... :sick2: :green: LOL

DM51 said:

Ultrafire eggs... :sick2: :green: LOL

Click to expand...

Who knows, they might be. I never did ask my neighbor where she got the eggs in the first place.