Why cant you boil an egg on top of Everest?

The white and yolk of an egg will not be fully cooked if boiled on the top of Mount Everest, 8,849 m high, because the boiling temperature of water changes with altitude.

Almost anywhere on the planet, you can boil an egg soft-boiled or hard-boiled. But at the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest, boiling an egg is impossible.

At sea level, water boils at 100 degrees Celsius - the boiling point. However, the boiling point will change according to different pressures. The higher the altitude above sea level, the lower the temperature required for water to boil, it is estimated that for every 300 meters of altitude increase, the boiling point decreases by one degree Celsius.

The highest permanently inhabited place in the world is the town of La Rinconada on Mount Ananea in the Peruvian Andes (5.52 m). Water boils there at 82.8 degrees Celsius.

Mount Everest is 8,849 m above sea level and the pressure is about 1/3 of atmospheric pressure, so the boiling point of water here is only 68 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, boiling water can cause serious burns, but it is not enough to completely boil an egg.

Egg whites and yolks solidify at different temperatures. Egg whites, which are 54% ovalbumin, solidify at 80°C, while yolks need at least 70°C to solidify. Therefore, 68°C is not enough to hard-boil an egg.

If you want to boil an egg on top of Mount Everest, the only way is to use a pressure cooker which increases the boiling point by increasing the pressure inside the pot.