As part of our celebrations for World Egg Day, the Residents of Oaklands joined in with our crazy Bouncing Egg “Eggsperiment”. Each resident took a raw egg, shell still in tact, and placed their eggs in a jar filled with white vinegar and a food colouring of their choice. The food colouring has no impact on the “eggsperiment” but enabled each resident to identify their own egg.
The eggs were left standing in the vinegar for 24 hours. The vinegar was then tipped away and refreshed. The eggs stood in the vinegar for another 72 hours by which time they were ready to bounce. Each resident took their egg and bounced it on a tray.
Not all were successful, however, 5 out of 6 eggs bounced with only 1 failing and splattering on the tray!
How Bouncy Eggs Work: The shell of an egg is made of calcium carbonate. When we placed the eggs into the vinegar, we saw bubbles, which is the chemical reaction of the acid in the vinegar reacting with the calcium carbonate to produce carbon dioxide. We also noticed the eggs got larger as they sat in the vinegar. This is because some of the vinegar is absorbed in the egg through its semi-permeable membrane.
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