Science Experiments

[AnythingsPossible]

Hoping someone can help!! My daughter (4th grade) is doing a science project where you soak an egg in vinegar. It is supposed to essentially dissolve the shell, yet the egg stays intact. Then you can put the egg in a bottle and the "shell" will reharden in the air.
Has anyone ever done an experiment like this? We found the idea online, and thought it sounded interesting, however, we have been soaking our egg and essentially the egg shell is cracking in the vinegar and the egg is leaking out. From everything we saw online, the egg itself is supposed to stay intact.
Any thoughts??

[WDW]

Is it supposed to be a hardboiled egg? I have never heard of this, so if that is dumb, I'm sorry. ::

[AnythingsPossible]

Nope, a raw egg. I'm gonna fel bad if i've given her a bad idea! Thinking of getting a farm egg and trying it with that.

[jen2651]

There are tons and tons of other egg experiments if this one doesn't work out. I believe it is Iowa Extension has lots listed. I will do a little bit of research and post a link!

Ps - it does work. but off the top of my head i thought it wasa peroxide?! Maybe too long of a day though!

[jen2651]

http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/AS/AS-574-W.pdf

You were right, it is vinegar...here is a link of a bunch of experiments with eggs!

[Abigail]

Here is a site. This has great pictures. I should try it!

http://www.edinformatics.com/math_science/science_of_cooking/naked_egg_experiment.htm

"Place the egg in a tall glass or jar and cover the egg with vinegar. Wait a few minutes and look at the jar. You should see bubbles forming on the egg. Leave the egg in the vinegar for a full 24 hours in the refrigerator. After the 24 hours, carefully pour the old vinegar down the drain and cover the egg with fresh vinegar. Place the glass with the vinegar and egg back in the refrigerator for a full week. One week later pour off the vinegar and very carefully rinse the egg with water. The egg looks translucent because the outside shell is gone. Notice that some of the vinegar has permeated through the egg's membrane and caused the egg to get a little bigger."

Did you replace the vinegar daily?
Did you keep it in the fridge?
Those might be the variables affecting it....I would try it with 2-3 eggs in separate bowls incase they have tiny holes and crack.

[jen2651]

Eggs from the grocery store have been washed. This washes some of the natural barriers off the shell which allows it to become semi-permeable faster than farm fresh eggs. That is why eggs from the store are only good for about 6 weeks past laying date where farm fresh are good for a really long time (like 10 weeks +) from laying.

So,there is another experiment in itself, which one dissolves the fastest...farm fresh or store bought?!

[AnythingsPossible]

Ok, here's what i've figured out. I got to thinking that the egg may have had a small crack to start with, so we started over yesterday afternoon. So far the new egg is staying intact! We took the cracked one out of the vinegar and the shell was definately soft! It was a really weird feeling. We had the dck's feel it and had a regular egg out to compare with. It was pretty cool! Cant wait to see if we actually succeed with her experiment! She was jazzed that the shell had softened, the other cool part was that after leaving it out all night, the shell had re-hardened!

[GretasLittleFriends]

That sounds pretty cool. I'm sitting here thinking to myself, "wow, how did the shell reharden?" Then I realized / remembered that when the chickens (or any other bird for that matter) lay an egg they are soft when they are first laid. The shell hardens with the contact of the air. Which explains why when a hen is butchered or any sort of wild game bird is shot/butchered the eggs are soft inside them.

That would be something fun to do this summer with my group of SAs. Thanks for the idea! I'll be checking that website out too.

[Abigail]

I did this experience just to test it out. I started out with three eggs in a container....I didn't need as much vinegar to cover the egg this way since I didn't have a small container to use. I ended up breaking one by peeling off the white which was actually part of the shell just softened. I peeled it too far and it covered the counter, so I ended up with two. They're really neat!