Rama Kumaraswamy Thoopal

Have you ever wondered why hens dont break their eggs when they siton them？ The secret lies in the shape of the egg. An egg is a great example ofnatures excellent skills in packing. If you squeeze2 the ends of an eggbetween the palms3 of your hands， it wont break. However， if you squeeze itin the middle， it pops and creates a terrible mess.

If you have seen the way eggs are sold in the market， you would havenoticed that they are kept with their ends pointing up and are never left lyinghorizontally4. Although an eggshell is really weak， its special dome-shaped5end makes it a“tough nut to crack6”.

If you have seen the Taj Mahal or any mosque7， you would have noticedthat the roof is a huge dome.

In earlier architectural8 forms， buildings had huge flat roofs which hadto be supported by a large number of pillars9. The dome is， however， adifferent structure—it has no corners.

What the dome does is that it makes the weight and the pressure on thetop apply evenly to the whole. In fact， in buildings， the dome is one of thestrongest designs for it supports the weight of the roof evenly so that no singlepoint on the dome supports the whole weight and gives way under stress.

Similarly， the dome shape of each end of the egg minimizes10 the stress.

你有沒(méi)有想過(guò)為什么母雞坐在雞蛋上面時(shí)不會(huì)弄碎雞蛋？秘密在于雞蛋的形狀。雞蛋是大自然優(yōu)秀包裝技巧的一個(gè)很好的例子。如果你用雙手手掌擠壓雞蛋的兩端，它不會(huì)破裂。然而，如果你擠壓它的中間，它就會(huì)啪地爆開(kāi)，造成一片狼藉。

如果你看到了市場(chǎng)上出售雞蛋的方式，你會(huì)注意到它們的兩頭是朝上的，而永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)被橫著放。盡管蛋殼真的很脆弱，但它特殊的圓頂形兩端使它成為“難以破開(kāi)的堅(jiān)果”。

如果你看過(guò)泰姬陵或任何清真寺，你會(huì)注意到它們的屋頂是一個(gè)巨大的圓頂。

在早期的建筑形式中，建筑物有巨大的平屋頂，必須由大量的柱子支撐。然而，穹頂是一個(gè)不同的結(jié)構(gòu)———它沒(méi)有角。

穹頂?shù)淖饔檬菍㈨敳康闹亓亢蛪毫鶆虻胤植嫉秸w。事實(shí)上，在建筑物中，穹頂是最堅(jiān)固的設(shè)計(jì)之一，因?yàn)樗鶆虻刂沃蓓數(shù)闹亓浚虼笋讽斏系娜魏我稽c(diǎn)都不會(huì)承受全部的重量，也不會(huì)在壓力下倒塌。

類似地，蛋兩端的圓頂形狀將壓力降至最低。

Notes

1. shell 殼

2. squeeze 擠壓

3. palm 手掌

4. horizontally 水平地

5. dome-shaped 圓頂狀的；穹頂

6. crack 砸開(kāi)；砸碎

7. mosque 清真寺

8. architectural 建筑學(xué)的

9. pillar 柱子；支柱

10. minimize 使減少到最低限度