The reason eggs are less likely to crack when dropped on their side - Hundreds of eggs were used to reveal the findings ...

But their results from controlled trials simulating the egg drop challenge in the lab calls this conventional wisdom into question. It is not an unreasonable assumption to make.

After dropping 60 eggs from each of three different heights — 8, 9, and 10 millimeters — onto a hard surface, the authors saw that, on average, eggs dropped vertically broke at lower drop heights.

Experiments with over 200 eggs reveal they're less likely to crack when falling on their side, potentially preventing those stray fissures that release egg white into the boiling water.