A jumping egg. Incredible but true!

Try this simple and fun experiment to find out how you can make an egg bounce.

Are you ready to bounce an egg? To perform the experiment you will need the following:

✔ 1 cup white vinegar
✔ 1 raw egg
✔ 1 container with lid

Process

Take a raw egg, place it in a bowl and pour white vinegar over it until it is completely covered. Close the container and place it in a place out of direct sunlight. Observe the egg for 3 days. When the egg is translucent (you can see through it), rinse it under tap water by gently rubbing the outside of the egg to remove the white membrane and pat dry.

Discussion

When you placed the egg in the container of vinegar, you probably noticed small bubbles that grew in size over time until they reached the surface of the white vinegar. Then the shell of the egg began to decompose until it almost disappeared completely. Upon removal from the container, the egg feels like it is made of plastic. Now, the funniest thing is that it will bounce. Try it from a short distance, unless you want to have to clean up!

But why did the egg shell disappear? The answer lies in the chemical properties of the vinegar and the egg. Vinegar is an acetic acid that reacts with the calcium carbonate found in the eggshell. This reaction produces carbon dioxide—the little bubbles you saw. By leaving the egg submerged in the vinegar, its shell was dissolved by the vinegar.