All fired up and ready to go for this week’s Friday DU Challenge Question?

[CTyankee]

He used a cracked egg to illustrate the theory of his discovery.

Who was he and what did he do?

[givemebackmycountry]

1. The Good Eats guy?

How to make a Spanish omelet?

[CTyankee]

2. not an omelet...

[dmallind]

3. No idea but I'll take a crack at the answer (pun intended)

Wegener and plate tectonics/continental drift?

[CTyankee]

4. Hmm, interesting...but not it...

[Duer 157099]

5. All the king's horses?

Or was it all the king's men?

OK, now I'll start thinking for real and see if I can find anything in these dusty brain cells

[Duer 157099]

6. Hard boiled or raw egg? n/t

[CTyankee]

Hmm, what do you "think"?

[librechik]

7. I'm used to the difficulty of your question, otherwise I would guess

Columbus, which seems too easy. (and probably wrong)

[CTyankee]

17. Several thoughts on Columbus here...I find that fascinating...

stuff I never knew about Columbus...

[laughingliberal]

8. Humpty Dumpty to prove his theory that the King's men and horses were slackers. nt

[Duer 157099]

9. Was he an architect? n/t

[Junkdrawer]

10. Filippo Brunelleschi - It was on an episode of The Day the Universe Changed. n/t

[CTyankee]

12. What principle was he trying to demonstrate with the cracked egg?

[Junkdrawer]

13. How to center his dome....

...

Over the next eight years as Brunelleschi's tambour was being constructed and the time approached to begin raising the cupola, architects calculated that if every tree in Tuscany were cut down, the resulting lumber would not be sufficient to center the dome during construction. The Opera cast about for solutions to the problem. One unique and monumental suggestion was that the church itself be filled with soil and seeded with gold coins. The needed scaffolding could then be erected on top of the tamped soil and the cupola built. Once the cupola was completed, all that was required was to announce that all who hauled away the soil could keep any gold coins they found.

Returning to Florence in 1417 and again in 1419, Brunelleschi joined the Opera and took great delight in pointing out the impossibility of every plan suggested. He claimed that only he knew how the dome could be constructed - and he could do it without centering. When asked how he could accomplish the task, Brunelleschi challenged the members of the Opera to balance an egg on its end. When they could not, Brunelleschi took the egg and struck it on the table so it broke, leaving a cupola shape sitting perfectly balanced on the table. The Opera scoffed at this simple solution, and demanded that Brunelleschi produce details on how the actual cupola would be constructed. Brunelleschi refused, still feeling the sting of being asked to share the stage in the Baptistery door commission - He suspected that if he revealed his knowledge, the Opera would include their favoured Ghiberti in the project. Brunelleschi was summarily thrown out of the meeting and ridiculed by the Opera as a mad man.

....

http://www3.telus.net/Quattrocento_Florence/brunelleschi2.html

[Duer 157099]

14. I bet he'd know how to stop the oil gusher n/t

[CTyankee]

16. Was there a particular "motion" that kept his large dome UP?

[Junkdrawer]

21. I know about the chains, but what are you referring to?

:shrug:

[CTyankee]

22. welll, what was the support of the duomo dome that kept it up?

I understand that the egg symbolized the structure but what held the large, high structure UP so HIGH? Before him there had never been an architect who as able to do this, so I wonder what he did to make it happen?

[alfredo]

11. Columbus?

That you can balance an egg on the first day of spring. He cracked the egg to make a flat spot.

[Call Me Wesley]

15. Yep, my choice, too.

I had to play Columbus in High School, and the funny thing was, that actually one of the other guys made it stand up by accident.

Ruined my whole acting career! ;)

[CTyankee]

18. How did that happen? Did he crack it?

[alfredo]

20. Not as bad as being an extra in a play about the Donner party.

[CTyankee]

24. Uh oh, I don't like the sound of that....

[alfredo]

27. Not Dinner theater fare.

[RandomThoughts]

19. Are you talking about Carville when he cracked an egg on his head.

after Bush took the election in 2004 on the show Crossfire, while laughing?. Although I think Kerry was not really supported by some factions, you might be talking about that.

However I do think the comments he said regarding BP not sending in help to clean up the mess makes sense and is important to get more resources to help in clean up, not sure about his overall concepts on many topics. Nor where he assigns blame. It seems more of a narrative for other reasons to blame government.

There is an argument that keeping BP in charge does not make sense, but that is an effect of decades of power claims by many sectors, not the effect of people currently in politics.

And I think the government is working to help clean up messes, so don't agree with some of those comments, however him calling out BP on its mistakes seemed to be not about politics, and as one poster said had some better intent.

[CTyankee]

23. Jeez, Carville's crazy. No, this is history.

Altho, come to think about it, this guy might have come up with a really good idea!

[MzNov]

25. John Dewey? nt

[CTyankee]

26. But, what work? nt

[lonestarnot]

31. Reflex arc concept in psychology.

[Duer 157099]

28. Are we still guessing? n/t

[tango-tee]

29. A physicist?

[lonestarnot]

30. Einstein?

[tango-tee]

32. And I'm still guessing physicist.... egg being runny and all...

universe expanding?

[B Calm]

33. John Dewey

[CTyankee]

34. Brunelleschi is correct.

The dome of the cathedral (duomo) of Florence.