With Easter just a couple of days behind us, it’s probably safe to assume you’ll have plenty of leftover eggs in the fridge. Why not try one of these fun “experiments” from Sci-Tech Discovery Center with the kids?
Egg Balancing
Have you ever heard that you can balance a raw egg vertically on the first day of spring? The story goes that because the sun is aligned with the Earth’s equator, gravity is somehow different.
Well, Sci-Tech fans know that balancing an egg is possible any day of the year with a nicely shaped egg and some patience.
Try it out anyway “it’s fun!
Egg in a bottle
This one requires some adult supervision and common sense.
You’ll need:
- several hard boiled eggs with the shell removed
- a clean glass bottle with a mouth only slightly smaller than the egg
- matches (hence the adult supervision)
- several strips of paper (2 x 6 inches)
We want to get the egg in that bottle without breaking it, but how? Have the adult light a strip of paper on fire, quickly and carefully place it into the bottle, and replace your egg on top. As the fire goes out, your egg should slip into the bottle!
What’s going on? When air heats up, you might have heard people say that it expands. That means that the molecules move away from each other. Some of them move around the egg and slip out of the bottle. As the fire goes out, the molecules cool and return to their original places, but that egg is in the way! This is called a partial vacuum. The air pressure outside the bottle is so great that it pushes the egg right in!
Have some trouble? Try greasing the top of your bottle with a little vegetable oil for a more slippery egg.
Article courtesy of the Sci-Tech Discovery Center. For more information visit their website at www.mindstretchingfun.org or call them at 972.546.3050. You can also follow Sci-Tech Discovery Center on Facebook.
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