How to make an egg bounce?: Science Course with Ryan Morse

(WFRV) – What came first, the chicken or the egg? No one knows, but they are an essential cooking item that we all use almost daily.

But did you know you can make an egg bounce without breaking?

According to Farmers Almanac, “Harriet, a hen from the United Kingdom, laid the world’s largest egg in 2010. Her astonishing egg measured 9.1 inches in diameter.”

Do it Yourself experiment:

Steps

1. You will need an egg, some vinegar, and a glass.
2. Take the raw egg, put it in the glass, and fill the glass with vinegar until the egg is covered.
3. Let it sit for a day or two, or until the egg starts to look translucent.
4. Remove the egg from the glass and run it under some tap water. Rub the outside of the egg to remove the white outer layer, leaving the translucent egg.
5. Take the egg and lift it about 1-2 inches off the ground and let it bounce. If you raise the egg a little higher, it will eventually break.

How does it work?

The outer shell of a chicken egg is made up of calcium carbonate. Once the egg is placed in vinegar, a chemical reaction occurs that produces carbon dioxide bubbles. Without the shell, vinegar starts to toughen up the egg’s thin membrane, or outer layer, through the process of osmosis.

Osmosis is the movement of molecules across a membrane into a region of higher solute concentration.