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I was just sent this hoax email, but wanted to check one of the claims in it:

IF YOU ARE DRIVING AT NIGHT AND EGGS ARE THROWN AT YOUR WINDSCREEN, DO NOT STOP TO CHECK THE CAR, DO NOT OPERATE THE WIPER AND DO NOT SPRAY ANY WATER BECAUSE EGGS MIXED WITH WATER BECOME MILKY AND BLOCK YOUR VISION UP TO 92.5%, AND YOU ARE THEN FORCED TO STOP BESIDE THE ROAD AND BECOME A VICTIM OF THESE CRIMINALS.

Is it true if an egg is thrown at your windscreen and you use the wipers + water then you will lose enough visibility that you would need to pull off the road?

going
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    Blocks your vision up to 92.5%? In other news 48% of statistics are made up out of thin air and 37.8% of those sound more authoritative by having a number after the decimal. – nalgenegirl Jul 08 '11 at 05:53
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    I do not think debunking mail hoaxes is a purpose of this site. – Suma Jul 08 '11 at 07:19
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    @suma - Did you read anything past the first sentence? – going Jul 08 '11 at 12:04
  • Yes, I did. Still I do not think the claim in notable enough by being mentioned in a mail hoax, and this site is (or I was told so until now) not here for debunking claims which are not notable. – Suma Jul 08 '11 at 13:37
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    This seems like something that can be empirically tested by anyone in a controlled environment, without damaging their vehicle, for a trivial expense. Why not have an experiment!? –  Feb 02 '14 at 17:29
  • You go first!!! – Ian Atkin Jul 26 '18 at 20:02

1 Answers1

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On this claim, Snopes says

While a mixture of raw egg and water vigorously stirred together in a glass will produce a somewhat milky-looking liquid (which might be the source of this tale), there's nothing about the interaction of egg and water that renders the resulting combination into a substance guaranteed to completely block a driver's vision. Egg alone or egg-and-water solutions are thin liquids and so are relatively easy to see through, with the vehicle's wipers generally sweeping away the worst of the mess fairly easily. Moreover, it would take a number of extremely well-placed eggs (a hen's typical offerings aren't that big) to splat a windshield so thoroughly as to completely impair the driver's view and force him to stop immediately - unless the visibility conditions were already poor, a motorist with a splattered windshield would generally still to be able to see well enough to continue driving out of range of the egg-throwing hooligans to a safe stopping place.

The 92.5% claim seems totally bogus. Is it 92.5% of the entire windshield or 92.5% of the driver's direct visible area - assuming the driver is looking straight ahead on the road. Let us assume that any spreadable surface area under the wipers - on any model of car - will be affecting the driver's direct visibility since that's what wipers are meant to keep clear in the first place.

Even if there is a light milky substance on the windscreen, how badly does that obstruct vision?

This gent actually tested this in 2007 with a single egg and on two different cars. You can see the outcome with pictures.

Even armed with decent wipers, it can get blurry at night but does not seem to be enough to obstruct your vision.

He concludes it's not safe to turn on the wipers but based on the images, I think this needs more testing with a larger number of eggs to be convinced.

JoseK
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    I think this sounds like a fun experiment. I would test it if original research were allowed :) – nalgenegirl Jul 08 '11 at 05:56
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    I see few things wrong with this experiment. One, is that it doesn't take in account dust on the windshield, it's tested on perfectly clean windshield. Using perfectly new wipers. Also washer fluid isn't actually water, it contains alcohol. Alcohol causes denaturation of egg white. – vartec Jul 08 '11 at 08:51
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    If the wiper fluid was vegetable oil, you'd get mayonnaise! Couple that with a burger cooked on the engine and you'd have a theme restaurant. – horatio Jul 08 '11 at 14:39