this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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The author is a muppet babbling about what they don't know.
TL;DR: here's a better guide. 90s video included if you don't want to read shit.
For kitchen purposes, the effect of dissolved salts in the boiling point of water is negligible. For baking soda you'd need to add more than 1tbsp for each cup of water, to raise it by a whole bloody degree. And even if the effect was relevant you'd achieve the same with any other solute, even table salt.
In case anyone is interested on the maths
The boiling point of a solution is dictated by the formula ΔTb = Kb*bc. In this case Kb = 0.512°C*(kg/mol) and bc = 2, so ΔTb = 1.024°C*(kg water)/(mol soda). A mol of sodium bicarbonate aka baking soda weights 84g, this is roughly five tablespoons. 5tbsp of baking soda per litre ≃ 1tbsp per 240g cup.The actual reason you might want to add some baking soda (or vinegar, or salt etc.) to the boiling water is because it denatures proteins, so if one of your eggs cracks while boiling, the white solidifies faster; hopefully sealing the crack off. This means cleaning less egg white gunk from your pot. (The shape of the boiled egg is probably ruined anyway. I generally throw those in - eat your failures so they won't haunt you.)
Thermal conductivity is irrelevant here. What could matter is thermal expansion: things get smaller when cold, but at different ratios, but even then I don't think thermal expansion plays a big role here.
The actual reason why "throw them into cold water" is good advice threefold:
For #2 and #3 you could also fridge them overnight. I don't bother, I'm usually too eager to eat them.
The moisture has jack shit to do with this, but point #1: you're preventing the egg from getting overcooked. And guess what, it's cooking that breaks sulphur off the proteins! That's why, for example, you'll get green/grey yolks if you cook the eggs for too long, even if you dump them into cold water afterwards.
A picture is worth a thousand words:

Taken from J. Kenji López-Alt's guide on perfect boiled eggs. Way better guide than the one in the OP, showing another way to do this: start with already boiling water, gently land the eggs into the water with the help of a spoon, wait, remove them from the water, profit.
Thanks for this, if you listen to Kenji, it's really impossible to fuck up a boiled egg. I prefer the steam method, less water boils faster!
You really don't yolk around
Talking about Chemistry eggcites me.
A cracking good time
Egg.
And thank you!