Egg-citing Egg-speriments!

Science experiments provide an eggcellent opportunity to spark curiosity about the natural world in your children (and curious grownups) while also explaining some of the principles of physics and chemistry. There are many different STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) projects that can be done using eggs; here we present four of our favorites that use materials you likely already have around the house. So grab a carton, or two, of eggs, and let’s see if egg science is all it’s cracked up to be!

Warning: While there are no specific diseases associated with heavy exposure to puns, this article contains high levels of egg and chicken puns. If you don’t like puns (especially egg puns), this article may stress your hen-durance and make you a little cuckoo.

Note: Aside from a few household items, these egg-speriments are easy, fun and safe. While there are no egg-splosions in the following egg-speriments, it’s always better to have an adult do them with little ones.

The Floating Egg

This experiment provides a demonstration of density and its impact on buoyancy. Following the steps here, you’ll find that adding salt increases the density of the water in the glass, until its density exceeds that of the egg, at which point the egg will begin to float.

• 2 raw eggs

• 2 glasses of warm water

• salt

Add 6 to 10 tablespoons of salt to one of the glasses of warm water, and stir until mixed thoroughly. Place an egg into each glass of water. If the egg in the saltwater sinks, remove it for a moment, and add more salt, stir, then try again!

Wash your hands and cups after handling raw eggs.

Buoyancy is a force acting upward that is responsible for keeping the egg, as well as boats, afloat. According to Archimedes’ principle, the strength of the buoyancy is equal to the weight of the displaced fluid.

In this experiment, the salt-water is denser than pure water, which means the weight of the salt water that is displaced is greater than pure water, and its buoyant force is stronger. Because the salt water is denser than an egg, its buoyancy is actually strong enough to keep the egg floating, while the less-dense, salt-free water doesn’t generate a buoyant force stronger than gravity on the egg, so it sinks.

If you want to do an more egg-sotic version of this experiment, go to the Dead Sea, a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel to the west. The human body can float in its salty water.

Spinning Eggs

Next, try the Spinning Eggs experiment to learn about the physics of rotational motion. Through this experiment, you can demonstrate how an egg’s center of gravity affects rotation, and a bit about Newton’s First Law of Motion.

• 1 hard-boiled egg

• 1 raw egg

Place the eggs on the table and spin them, observe the differences in speed

Try stopping the eggs by gently placing one finger on the spinning eggs for a moment

Wash your hands and surface after handling raw eggs.

The raw egg rotates slowly because its interior is a liquid, which moves inside the shell as the egg rotates, causing the center of gravity of the egg to shift, creating a wobble that slows down its spinning.

Conversely, the hard-boiled egg spins faster and more smoothly because the entire egg is solid. Its center of gravity is fixed, and the egg can rotate efficiently around that without a wobble.

Stopping the eggs is an opportunity to introduce Newton’s First Law of Motion, which states that an object in motion stays in motion until acted upon by an outside force. Though friction between the shell and table slows down the raw egg eventually, the momentum of the swirling interior of the egg tends to keep the egg in motion longer. The reason is that the outside force (friction) acting on the eggshell is weaker on the liquid egg contents (because they can move within the shell) than on hard-boiled eggs where the entire egg is subjected to the force of friction.

The eggshell should be gone; try lifting the egg up a few centimeters and letting it bounce.

Be aware: The egg is still raw so if it drops from too high, the membrane will break and spill the egg’s contents

Wash hands, jar and surface after handling raw eggs.

What you’ll observe over the course of a few days is a reaction between acetic acid in the vinegar and calcium carbonate in the eggshell to produce calcium acetate (which dissolves away from the egg into the liquid), carbon dioxide (bubbles) and water.

After this chemical reaction is finished, the eggshell is dissolved, leaving a proteinbased membrane behind, allowing the egg to bounce.