An egg timer is placed (off-center) on a centrifuge. By varying the speed of the motor, you can control the duration of the timer. To enhance visibility, the timer medium (which could be either solid or liquid) is made out of a fluorescent material, and the centrifuge has an integrated black light.

Watch it go around in circles as the grains of time slip away.
-- ytk, Mar 13 2011

Slowing down time will not make your eggs any softer.
-- The_Saint, Mar 13 2011


Yes you would shurely have to factor in relativistic effects into your calculations I would think!
-- pocmloc, Mar 13 2011


Yes, wouldn't it be simpler to have it orbit a black hole?

If your eggs were overcooked, you could take advantage of frame dragging to soften them.
-- mouseposture, Mar 13 2011


You would have to control for relativistic effects by frying the egg in the centrifuge as well so that it was subject to the same forces as the egg-timer.
-- hippo, Mar 13 2011


// so that it was subject to the same forces as the egg-timer. //

But if the observer is outside the system under scrutiny, the observed data are themselves subject to relativistic effects.

So there needs to be somewhere in the centrifuge for the observer, too.

If you're having the system orbit a black hole, watch out for tidal forces; the gravity gradient's going to be fairly steep.

[+]
-- 8th of 7, Mar 13 2011


//the gravity gradient's going to be fairly steep//
How steep? Could we save on cooking gas by using tidal forces to scramble eggs?
-- mouseposture, Mar 13 2011


Tidal forces might be able to mix the yolk and white, possibly without breaking the shell, but wouldn't provide enough energy to cook the egg.
-- 8th of 7, Mar 13 2011


Perfect, that's what I wanted. Combine tidal forces with frame dragging, and it should be possible to unscramble an egg without breaking the shell.
-- mouseposture, Mar 13 2011


[bisleep] That depends on whether space is flat or curved. Small changes to the cosmological constant can change an oblique metaphor into an acute observation.
-- mouseposture, Mar 13 2011


... or an obtuse comment.
-- 8th of 7, Mar 13 2011


Are there a lot of people like that, then?
-- 8th of 7, Mar 22 2020



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