The Egg of Columbus is a story of how to make an egg stand on end. The story is used to illustrate the skill at practical judgment and evaluation. In geometry, an oval or ovoid (from Latin ovum, egg) is any curve resembling a cross-section of a chicken egg or the outline of a speed skating track. ...

Christopher Columbus story

In the story, Christopher Columbus attends a dinner which a Spanish gentleman had given in his honor. Columbus asks the gentlemen in attendance to make an egg stand on end. After the gentlemen unsuccessively tried to and failed, they stated that it was impossible. Columbus then placed the egg's small end on the table, breaking the shell a bit, so that it could stand upright. Columbus then stated that it was "the simplest thing in the world. Anybody can do it, after he has been shown how!" Christopher Columbus (October 30, 1451? – 20 May 1506) was an explorer and trader, who crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Americas on October 12, 1492 under the flag of Castile. ... A carton of free-range chicken eggs Ostrich egg Bird eggs are a common food source. ...

This story may be a derivative of one in which Filippo Brunelleschi, instead of Columbus, makes the proposition. The Brunelleschi story is set before he won the contract to build the dome of the cathedral of Florence. There is a monument to Columbus' egg in Sant Antoni de Portmany. Santa Maria del Fiore, with dome designed by Brunelleschi Sculpture of Brunelleschi looking at the dome in Florence Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 – April 15, 1446) was a great Florentine architect of the Italian Renaissance. ... A contract is a promise or an agreement that is enforced or recognised by the law. ... St Peters Basilica (topped with a lantern), Rome A dome is a common structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. ... The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is the cathedral church, or Duomo, of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, noted for its distinctive dome. ... Sant Antoni de Portmany (old Spanish name Sant Antoni) is the second largest town in Ibiza; an island long considered by clubbers to be the clubbing capital of the world. ...

Tesla's Egg of Columbus

Nikola Tesla, at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, demonstrated a device he constructed known as the "Egg of Columbus". It was used to demonstrate and explain the principles of the rotating magnetic field model and the induction motor. Tesla's Egg of Columbus performed the feat of Columbus with a copper egg in a rotating magnetic field. The egg spins on its major axis, standing on end due to gyroscopic action. Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856 – c. ... 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... One-third scale replica of The Republic, which once stood in the great basin at the exposition, Chicago, 2004 The Worlds Columbian Exposition (also called The Chicago Worlds Fair), a Worlds fair, was held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbuss... The rotating magnetic field is a magnetic field that rotates. ... Electric motors of various sizes. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic brown Atomic mass 63. ... It has been suggested that Magnetic field density be merged into this article or section. ... A gyroscope is a device which demonstrates the principle of conservation of angular momentum, in physics. ...

Tesla's device used a toroidal iron core stator on which four coils were wound. The device was powered by a two-phase alternating current source (such as a variable speed alternator) to create the rotating magnetic field. A three-phase alternator would work just as well, if not better. The device operated on 25 to 300 hertz current. The ideal operating frequency was described as being between 35 to 40 hertz. A reproduction of the device is displayed at the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade. A toroid is a doughnut-shaped object whose surface is a torus. ... General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Atomic mass 55. ... The stator is the fixed part of a rotating machine. ... A coil is a series of loops. ... City lights viewed in a motion blurred exposure. ... An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to alternating current electrical energy. ... The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the SI unit of frequency. ...

Further readings

• Corum, K. L., J. F. Corum, and J. F. X. Daum, "Tesla´s Egg of Columbus, Radar Stealth, the Torsion Tensor, and the 'Philadelphia Experiment' ". 1994 International Tesla symposium, Colorado Springs, 1994.
• "Tesla's Egg of Columbus". Electrical Experimenter. New York, March 1919. (Reprinted in "Strange Stories from Electrical Experimenter Magazine, 1917-1919" by Lindsay Publications)

External links and references

General story

• Baldwin, James, "Columbus and the egg". 1903.
• "Columbus' egg? Brunelleschi got there first". ANSA.
• "Florence". Brunelleschi egg-shaped cupola model.

Tesla's device

• "Nikola Tesla's Egg of Columbus," including a photograph of the device in action. Twenty First Century Books.

Other uses

Egg of Columbus can refer to a puzzle which originated in the 19th century (China). This is a variation of the types of puzzle (known more generally as a tangram) which consist of pieces divided and arranged to match particular designs. An example of a simple puzzle. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... A typical tangram construction Tangram (Chinese: 七巧板; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally seven boards of cunning) is a Chinese puzzle. ...

Puzzles

• Rausch, John, "Put-Together - Ei Des Columbus, aka. Egg Of Columbus". Puzzle World. 2003.