You can tell a hard-boiled egg from a raw egg,
just by giving it a spin, because the fluid inside this
sloshes around and it really dampens it.
But, when boiling eggs, how do you tell if the eggs
in here are done? Now, you could just know
how long the eggs take to be done, and time it.
But, that's just too easy, and you got to keep track of time.
I could try to probe the temperature inside the egg
but that has some unfortunate consequences.
So, I've come up with this contraption where you can help
the eggs up, and then give it a spin, back and forth.
And, this egg is still, kind of raw, so it really dampens.
Whereas if I put the hard boiled egg in here,
that just bobbles back and forth a lot.
To make this one, I just took some house wiring,
stripped the insulation and bent it into shape
and bent a spring in here.
But, the main problem with this one is
I can't really distinguish a soft boiled egg
from a hard boiled egg. Cause on a soft boiled egg,
only the yolk is still liquid and that just doesn't provide
enough dampening, so I want to build one that
oscillates faster, which might be able to detect
soft boiled. So, I'm starting with a whisk
that came apart, for some stainless steel wire
and I'll use one of these barrier strip connectors
and a stiffer spring.
So, either I need a tighter grip on the egg,
or I need a spring that's a bit looser.
It's really important that the coils of the spring don't
touch each other, cause that will cause dampening.
So, I need to stretch this spring a little bit.
Over-stretch it, in fact,
so that the coils don't touch each other.
It's a little bit better.
I think this one's about right.
except I dropped my egg a few times.
So, these eggs have got maybe 2 minutes of
boiling on them. They don't oscillate.
So, still a ways to go.
So, now it's been about 4 minutes.
And, it oscillates a little bit better.
But, still nothing compared to the hard boiled egg.
A 6 minute egg
and that's oscillating pretty good.
Still not as much as the hard boiled egg.
7 minute egg.
And, it's oscillating.
Let's see
No, the hard boiled egg is still going a little bit stronger
But, let's cut one open.
And, let's see. Well, the yolk is
getting firm, I guess this level of stiffness
is still hard to detect. I quite like soft boiled eggs.
I think this egg is now indistinguishable
from a hard boiled egg at least as far as my
gadget is concerned.
Well, that is mostly hard boiled.
If I let that sit on the counter for just a few
more minutes, that would completely set hard.