"jake" > wrote in message
. nl...
> > What if you just put them in the cold water? Will the shell crack
> > enough on its own due to thermal stress?
> >
> > --Blair
> >
> I don't know what thermal stress is.

He means the sort of stress that will crack a hot glass if you
pour ice-cold water into it - but I doubt that this is going to happen
with the egg, for the same reason that makes a wine glass less
likely to crack in such a scenario as opposed to a heavy beer
stein. A thin shell of material with low thermal mass is relatively
easy to change temperature in THROUGHOUT - it will not
experience the sort of stress that a thick material which will
retain a lot of heat (and so can wind up with a "cold outside" and
a "hot inside," or vice-versa) is going to see.

Bob M.