This week may feel like it’s hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, but anyone who says that is really just eggs-aggerating.
The National Weather Service expects the mercury to climb to 99 degrees today with highs forecast in the upper 90s for the rest of the week.
Humidity and other factors will drive the heat index to 105 and, while it will feel hot, it’s not as hot as some expressions would lead you to believe. Wednesday’s and Thursday’s temperatures are supposed to reach 98.
On Monday afternoon, a highly unscientific Times Free Press test could not replicate the fabled sidewalk scrambling “eggs-periment” – at least not without some help. Eggs were placed on a sidewalk, an asphalt parking lot, in a skillet, on aluminum foil and on a skillet in a car.
After an hour and a half, none of the eggs had fried, but the egg in the car had started to congeal as the temperature inside the car climbed toward 150 degrees.
“Sounds like a waste of a good egg to me,” said Bob Marlow, a professor of physics at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Notable temperatures in Fahrenheit99 degrees – Forecast high for Chattanooga Tuesday158 degrees – Temperature needed for an egg to solidify833 degrees – As hot as hell, based on the boiling point of sulphur2,858 degrees – As hot as “blue blazes,” based on the temperature of a blue flame in a Bunsen burner9,940 degrees – As hot as the surface of the SunSources: UTC Physics Department, UniverseToday.com, National Weather Service, UK Institute of Physics, Library of Congress
He said car interiors can get awfully hot, but temperatures would have to be well over 100 degrees to make an egg sizzle.
Humidity is also a key, according to Jerry Love, a spokesman for the Oatman, Ariz., Chamber of Commerce. Oatman has hosted a Sidewalk Egg Fry on July 4 for nearly 20 years. About 30 contestants participated this year, using prisms, magnifying glasses and mirrors to fry the eggs in the 30-minute time window.
“There are some pretty sophisticated pieces of equipment people bring up here to fry an egg,” he said.
The South’s humidity slows down the process, he explained, but he seemed certain eggs could still be fried in Chattanooga.
“There’s plenty of heat at 100 degrees, you’ve just got to get it focused on that egg,” he said.
As it turns out, “hot enough to fry an egg” is not the only expression that science has debunked.
“A Random Walk in Physics,” published by the UK Institute of Physics, disproves another common phrase: It’s never been hot as hell in Chattanooga.
In the Bible, Revelation 21:8 describes hell as having a “lake of boiling sulphur.” Based on sulphur’s boiling point, scientists determined that “hot as Hades” could be around 445 degrees Celsius or 833 degrees Fahrenheit.
Based on that data, Chattanooga’s temperature this week will be less than one-eighth as hot as hell.
The weather will also not be “hot as blue blazes,” despite the phrase.
Jack Pitkin, lab manager for the physics and astronomy department at UTC, said “blue blazes” could refer to a blue flame from burning gas or blue stars, which are the hottest type of heavenly body at 30,000 degrees Kelvin, or 53,540 Fahrenheit.
Probably, he said, the phrase comes from blue flames like the ones on Bunsen burners in his lab, which reach 1,570 degrees Celsius or 2,858 degrees Fahrenheit.
“That’s probably what they had in mind. The blue part is supposed to the hottest part of the flame,” he said. “It’s probably just a metaphor. ‘Hot as blue blazes’ just rolls off the tongue.”
And while the weather may not be hot as blue blazes or hot enough to fry an egg, Pitkin offered another idea.
“I used to have a black Fairlane with no air conditioning,” he said. “I’d like to see you try and bake biscuits in that thing.”
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