It's time to link up with Adventures in Mommydom for Science Sunday. This week we did a very cool/gross/amazing science experiment that lasted all week but only took about 10 minutes of our time. I LOVE those experiments! It is called The Amazing Egg.

INGREDIENTS OR SUPPLIES:

1 uncooked egg in its shell
jar with a lid (old mayonnaise or peanut butter jar.. make sure the opening of the jar is as big as you can find... our egg expanded quite a bit and was hard to get out after the first three days!)
white vinegar
measuring tape

DIRECTIONS:

1. Wrap the measuring tape around the middle of the egg. Write down that measurement. (Our egg circumference was 6 inches)

2. Place the egg inside the jar. Make sure that it does not crack as you are putting it in.

3. Pour enough white vinegar over the egg to completely cover it. Screw the lid of the jar back on.

4. Leave the egg in the jar for three days. Every once in a while, look to see if it is changing and how.

5. After three days, carefully take the egg out of the jar. (We had to carefully SQUEEZE ours out) Measure around the middle of the egg again. (Ours was 7 inches this time and very rubbery with all of the shell completely gone!)

What happened?

When you put the egg in the vinegar, you see bubbles. After three days the shell of the egg is gone and the egg has gotten bigger.

Why? The eggshell is made of a substance similar to limestone. When the acid in the vinegar touches the shell, there is a chemical reaction. The shell breaks down during the reaction, creating gases including carbon dioxide, resulting in the bubbles that you see.

Vinegar has water in it. The water moves through very small holes in the egg’s membrane. This process is called osmosis. As more water goes inside the egg, it gets bigger. This is the same way that nutrients move into your body’s cells.

Here is what ours looked like!

Save this egg to use in The Amazing Egg Part II.

Part II:
INGREDIENTS OR SUPPLIES:

The Amazing Egg from the experiment entitled “The Amazing Egg Part I”
Jar with a lid (old mayonnaise or peanut butter jar)
Corn syrup

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pour the corn syrup into the jar until it is at least three inches deep, but don’t fill the jar completely.

2. Gently place the egg in the jar and then screw on the lid.

3. Leave the egg in the jar for three days.

4. Check the egg every once in a while. What is happening... anything?

5. After the three days have passed, remove the egg from the jar very carefully. Measure around its middle.

What happened?

The egg shrinks and wrinkles up. It becomes small and rubbery.

Why? The water molecules inside the egg move through the egg’s membrane and into the corn syrup. The corn syrup does not move into the egg because its molecules are too big to fit through the tiny holes in the membrane. Particles move in and out of your body’s cells in this same way.

Here is our egg as of today (it still has 12 hours to go until we can take it out, but I can see that the egg has shrunk and you can REALLY see the yolk inside now.) It's been fascinating to watch this week.