Get a quick overview of some of our science experiments.
The Spinning Egg Experiment
Do you know how to tell if your egg is hard boiled or raw without cracking it open? Try this fun, easy and quick experiment?
The Spinning Egg Experiment
Items needed: Hardboiled egg, raw egg, table, pencil
What to do:
1. Have your parent assist you in hard boiling your egg. Then mark it as hard boiled.
2. Now spin both the raw and hard boiled eggs. What do you notice?
3. Spin again and put your finger on them lightly to try to stop them. What happens now?
4. Try spinning both eggs at different speeds. What do you see?
So now think about what’s happening
Hard boiled eggs spin easier and faster. Why? The insides are solid!
Raw eggs are harder to spin. Why? The insides are liquid and are sloshing around and continue moving when you are trying to stop the spinning. Do you think the insides of the raw egg are spinning at a different rate that the shell of the raw egg?
The physics?
The raw egg’s center of gravity changes as the white and yolk move around inside the egg. This causes the egg to wobble around. When you try to stop the egg with the tip of your finger the shell continues to move. This is because of inertia, the same type of force you feel when you are in a car and it suddenly stops, your body wants to continue moving forward. Inertia causes the raw egg to spin even after you have stopped it. When you try the same spin with the hardboiled egg the solid insides responds much quicker when you try to stop the spin.
Making an Egg Bounce
Have you ever seen an egg without a shell? What happens to a normal egg when you drop it? It smashes, right? So in this experiment we are actually going to make an egg bounce.
Making an Egg Bounce
Have you ever seen an egg without a shell? What happens to a normal egg when you drop it? It smashes, right? So in this experiment we are actually going to make an egg bounce.
Step 1: Place the egg in some vinegar for a couple of days to remove the shell. You should be left with a shell-less egg. Interesting and cool looking!
Step 2: Wash the egg to get the last bits of shell off but be very careful not to break it.
Step 3: Drop it carefully from a low height on to the surface of your table – it should bounce!
Step 4: Now try dropping it from different heights and on to different surfaces and record your results. You can even make a scientific table to record your results.
Other stuff to do with your shell less egg:
If you want to see your egg get really big, simply put it in a cup filled with water. The makeup of the inside of the egg is around 90% water. If you put the egg in a cup of (100%) water, the water will begin to move inside the egg through the membrane to equalize the amount of water inside and outside of the egg membrane. This process of water moving through a membrane is called osmosis. Now this is really cool — will get really big!
Now questions your child – was this what they expected? Have them come up with their own theories. Have fun discussing all the possibilities.
Making an Unbreakable Egg
Do you think that all eggs can break? This experiment will show you how a normal fragile egg can be made unbreakable.
Making an Unbreakable Egg
Equipment Needed: Egg and a piece of plastic cling wrap
Step 1. Wrap the plastic cling wrap around the egg and place the egg in the palm of your hand so your fingers are completely wrapped around the egg.
Step 2. Squeeze as hard as you can.
The egg should not break. If you want to have some fun try squeezing the egg without the plastic cling wrap (you may want to do this over the sink)
So what’s the Science here!
So you know the shell is fragile, but the shape of an egg is very strong. The trick here is that pressure is applied evenly all over the shell so it will not break.
Sucking an Egg into a Bottle
Try this fun experiment! But before you discuss the science behind it with your child see what kind of theories they come up with.
Sucking an Egg into a Bottle
Try this fun experiment! But before you discuss the science behind it with your child see what kind of theories they come up with.
Equipment list:
Glass bottle or jar with a narrow opening that is smaller than the width of an egg.
Matches
Newspaper
Hard boiled and peeled egg
During this fun experiment the egg will get sucked into the bottle. See if you can figure out why before you read the science.
Step 1. Place your egg in the opening of the bottle, so it is perched on top.
Step 2: Remove the egg from the bottle, light a piece of newspaper and drop it in to the bottle. Now quickly put the egg over the opening of the bottle. Make sure you put the narrow part of the egg pointing down into the bottle.
Now this is really cool because the egg will get sucked down into the bottle. See if you can get the egg back out without breaking it.
What’s the science?
The egg got sucked into the bottle because the fire causes the air pressure inside the bottle to become lower than the air pressure outside of the bottle. This causes the egg to get sucked into the bottle. What happened after the egg went in to the bottle? The pressure now is stabilized between the inside and outside of the bottle – so the egg will not come back out. Stay tuned for more experiments with Gemperle eggs .
