Researchers Finally Find an Universal Formula for the Shape of an Egg

Researchers Finally Find an Universal Formula for the Shape of an Egg

Scientists from the University of Kent, the Research Institute for Environment Treatment, and Vita-Market Ltd have found the universal mathematical formula that can explain any bird’s egg existing in nature, which has been unsuccessful previously.

Egg-shape has long drawn in the interest of mathematicians, engineers, and biologists from an analytical point of view. The shape has been highly praised for its evolution as big enough to incubate an embryo, however small enough to exit the body in the most efficient form, not roll away once laid, is structurally sound to endure the weight and be the start of life for 10,500 species that exist since the dinosaurs. The egg has been called the “excellent shape.”

Evaluation of all egg shapes used four geometric figures: ball, ellipsoid, ovoid, and pyriform (conelike), with a mathematical formula for the pyriform yet to be acquired.

Basic egg shape outlines based on Nishiyama: (A) circular, (B) elliptical, (C) oval, and (D) pyriform.

To correct this, scientists introduced an extra function into the ovoid formula, developing a mathematical model to fit a novel geometric shape defined as the last stage in developing the sphere-ellipsoid, which applies to any egg geometry.

This new universal mathematical formula for egg form is based on four criteria:

  • Egg length;
  • Maximum breadth;
  • Shift of the vertical axis;
  • Diameter at one-quarter of the egg length.

This lengthy sought-for universal formula is a significant step in understanding not only the egg shape itself but likewise precisely how and also why it evolved, hence making widespread biological and also technical applications possible.

Mathematical descriptions of all standard egg forms have currently found applications in food study, mechanical engineering, agriculture, biosciences, style, and aeronautics. For instance, this formula can be employed in the construction engineering of thin-walled vessels of an egg shape, which need to be stronger than common spherical ones.

This brand-new formula is an essential advancement with numerous applications, including: 

  1. Efficient scientific description of a biological object. Now that an egg can be explained through a mathematical formula, work in fields of biological systematics, optimization of technological criteria, egg incubation, and selection of poultry will certainly be substantially simplified.
  2. Accurate as well as simple determination of the physical features of a biological object. The external properties of an egg are essential for researchers and engineers who establish technologies for breeding, handling, keeping, and arranging eggs. There is a need for an easy identification process utilizing egg volume, area, the radius of curvature, and various other indicators for defining the contours of the egg, which this formula offers.
  3. Future biology-inspired design. The egg is an all-natural biological system examined to develop engineering systems as well as cutting-edge technologies. The egg-shaped geometric figure is used in architecture, such as London City Hall’s roofing system and the Gherkin, and construction as it can hold up against maximum loads with minimum consumption of materials. This formula can now be easily used.

Darren Griffin, Professor of Genetics in the University of Kent as well as PI on the study, claims that “evolutionary biological processes such as egg development have to be examined for mathematical description as a basis for study in evolutionary biology, as demonstrated with this formula. This universal formula can be used across essential disciplines, specifically the food and poultry industries. It will function as a catalyst for more examinations inspired by the egg as a research object.”

Dr. Michael Romanov, Visiting Researcher at the University of Kent, states that “this mathematical formula highlights our understanding as well as the gratitude of a certain philosophical harmony between maths and also biology, and also from those two away in the direction of additional understanding of our world, understood in the shape of an egg.”

Dr. Valeriy Narushin, a former visiting researcher at the University of Kent, claims that they “anticipate seeing the application of this formula through industries, from art to technology, design to farming. This discovery exposes why such collaborative research from separate topics is crucial.”


Originally published on Scitechdaily.com. Read the original article.

Reference: Valeriy G. Narushin et al, Egg and math: introducing a universal formula for egg shape, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14680

Share this post