For years, scientists have tried to crack a mathematical mystery: Is there an equation that can perfectly describe each and every bird egg? Variable shell shapes complicated things. But it turns out the answer is simple. A formula using just four easily measured dimensions can calculate the shape of any avian egg, be it round as a ping-pong ball, a smooshed sphere, oblong or a curvaceous pear, researchers report in an upcoming issue of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
It was that last shape that had eluded the eggs-perts.
The new formula needs four inputs: the egg’s length, its maximum breadth, its diameter at the spot where its pointed end terminates and the location of its maximum diameter in relationship to the midpoint of its length. Adding one additional function and incorporating that last diameter variable to existing egg math led to the universal equation.
The finding could have real-life implications, says Darren Griffin, a geneticist at the University of Kent in England, who did the work along with Kent biologist Michael Romanov and Valeriy Narushin, an agricultural engineer formerly at Kent. For example, being able to calculate an egg’s shape could help designers create better padded or form-fitting egg containers, minimizing grocery store waste or that disappointing moment of arriving home with a carton of eggs, opening the lid and finding your eggs cracked. “We’re all supposed to check in the box” before leaving the store, but it’s easy to forget, says Griffin.
It was that last shape that had eluded the eggs-perts.
The new formula needs four inputs: the egg’s length, its maximum breadth, its diameter at the spot where its pointed end terminates and the location of its maximum diameter in relationship to the midpoint of its length. Adding one additional function and incorporating that last diameter variable to existing egg math led to the universal equation.
The finding could have real-life implications, says Darren Griffin, a geneticist at the University of Kent in England, who did the work along with Kent biologist Michael Romanov and Valeriy Narushin, an agricultural engineer formerly at Kent. For example, being able to calculate an egg’s shape could help designers create better padded or form-fitting egg containers, minimizing grocery store waste or that disappointing moment of arriving home with a carton of eggs, opening the lid and finding your eggs cracked. “We’re all supposed to check in the box” before leaving the store, but it’s easy to forget, says Griffin.
