Thursday 2 August 2018

How we made a bouncy egg.....

I watch ITV's This Morning most days and a while ago they had the CBeebies presenter Maddie Moate on showing off some fab science experiments which used things from around the home....I watched along and said to myself my girls would love to try these things...


I had seen people make a bouncy egg before but I hadn't tried it myself....To be honest I really didn't think it would work but it is so simple.

The science behind it:

Vinegar is a weak acid. Egg shell is made of calcium carbonate. When the two come together they create a chemical reaction that breaks down the calcium carbonate and produces carbon dioxide which are the bubbles you can see in the photo below. After 24 hours the shell is nearly all dissolved and is weak enough to be rubbed away. Once the shell is gone the vinegar will cross over the semi-permeable membrane (through a process called osmosis) and slightly inflate the egg. This process also “pickles” the egg, by hardening it up. The toughening of that membrane is what lets you bounce it!


To do this all you really need is an egg, clear vinegar and something to put it in. After doing this I do advise a sealable container to reduce the smell of the vinegar!

You put the eggs in a container or glass cover it in vinegar and leave it overnight. When we took it out of the vinegar it was pretty amazing! The shell came off! When we gave it a quick wash under the tap. That was the first thing that amazed me....Then we squeezed it and bounced it and it really was like rubber....

Ellie did not believe it was a real egg....She thought I was tricking her so later on I took her and the egg to the sink and let her cut into it with a knife. The yolk was still there and was just as it should be! 



It was amazing how a bit of vinegar can change an egg so much! The girls were so impressed and fascinated by it.


2 comments :

  1. Fantastic! I will definitely try this with my daughter, she will love this! #PoCoLo

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  2. Looks like fun, I had not seen these before Kim :) #pocolo

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