2003 HS Photo Contest Pictures

2003 High School Photo Contest Winners
Sponsored by Vernier Software and Technology
127th AAPT National Meeting , Madison, WI

First Place - Contrived Category

Title: Spinning Egg
Student: Jared Hill
School: The North Carolina School of Science and Math, Durham, NC
Teacher: Loren Winters

When a hard-boiled egg is spinning in a thin layer of water, the water will creep up the side of the egg until it is thrown outwards, creating a fountain effect.1 I used a small amount of white glue mixed with water for contrast and two flashes on either side of the egg in order to catch the spiral of the water droplets flying from the egg and the height the water travels up the side of the egg. I spun the egg on a mirror in a layer of water a few millimeters high. As the egg rotates, the water droplets adhere to the surface of the egg and this adhesive force is what overcomes gravity and allows the droplets to move up the side of the egg. Once the adhesive force no longer has a vertical component, the droplets cannot creep any higher up the egg and the droplets coalesce to form larger drops of water which are soon thrown outwards.