This egg experiment is a new take on an old favourite. We have made bouncy eggs before, we even made them fluorescent! This year we decided to add more colour.
This is a really simple experiment, you probably have everything you need already in your kitchen and it is guaranteed to entertain both the young and the young at heart!
You will need:
Clear malt vinegar, a glass or cup, a whole raw egg, food colouring
What to do:
Place the raw egg in the glass and cover with vinegar, making sure the egg is completely covered.
Leave overnight or up to 48 hours if necessary.
After this time, remove the egg carefully and rinse it in a bowl of water.
The vinegar will have dissolved all the shell of the egg, leaving just the egg membrane keeping the structure together. The “naked” egg will be soft and bouncy and a little delicate so do be carefully when washing any remaining shell off.
Next place the egg into an empty glass and cover with water, add at least two teaspoons of your chosen food colouring (we used red here) and leave overnight again.
The next day carefully remove the egg from the coloured water, rinse and pat dry (you may find your fingers will get a little stained from the food colouring but it will wash off).
Now you have a coloured, bouncy egg, but be carefully when you bouncy it…
What has happened:
When the egg is in the vinegar you will notice some bubbles forming and eventually a foam will appear at the surface of the vinegar. The eggshell is made up of calcium carbonate. The vinegar (an acid) reacts with the calcium carbonate (a base) producing a salt and a gas called carbon dioxide (these are the bubbles you see). The vinegar will keep reacting with the calcium carbonate until it is all gone, leaving the egg contained in just the cell membrane.
A delicate, but bouncy egg.
When the egg is then placed in coloured water the water will travel into the egg by a process called osmosis. The egg will swell a little with the extra water.
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Love the look and sound of this. My boys are not gentle creatures. They know what delicate means just not as it applies to them! I take it one hard, forceful bounce or drop will see egg everywhere???
Yup you’d be right on that one (did you check out the video?) but it is kind of half the fun 😉
We have billions of eggs at the minute, so have the ingredients for many a bouncy egg! My children will EXPIRE with excitement when we do this!!
It is a lot of FUN alright Emily! We set it up again last night as the kids want to do one more thing with it… watch this space 😉
I have done the first part so I’m anticipating fierce excitement later tomorrow when we’re moving onto the water and food colouring part!
Yes, I imagine there will be plenty of excitement… just remember to include the kids too 😉
I’m so doing this with the kids over the next few days before they go back to school!
It is such an easy one Lucy and they will love it; let us know how it goes