Bouncy Egg

How to Make and Egg Bounce!

Another request for science, but this time we didn't have time to mix and squirt and fizz. I'd seen this experiment ages ago on the internet but Olly found it in his science book. 

First we filled one glass with the dreaded vinegar (honestly my house constantly smells of the stuff!), and one glass with water. Then we dropped a raw egg into each:

Instantly you can notice a difference - the vinegar is on the left.

After a couple of house we noticed the shell literally shredding:

Now this is the boring bit - you need to leave it for 7 days!! Luckily we were going away for 4 so that wasn't to hard. Every day we were there we felt it and it was getting softer and softer.

Then on day 7 when we got home this is what we found:

It was really rubbery and squidgy.  So next came the test. You do need to be gentle, but it does actually bounce - even I was amazed!

Then as with all things in my house distruction becomes the goal! It didn't take very long, but a harder, higher drop and SPLAT!

It was funny how the egg inside was still a runny, messy, raw egg (smelling of vinegar!), but the shell was like plastic!

The Science Bit

The vinegar, which is an acid, reacts with the calcium carbonate  of the eggshell. The change makes the shell go soft then disappear. Its called decalcification.

You can apparently try this with a clean chicken bone as well which should turn so rubbery that you could tie it in a knot!

As always thank you for getting this far!