Have you every done the classic egg in vinegar experiment? My oldest and I did a long time ago (like back in the day when I had a full time, put on nice clothes and go to work kind of a job). The other day, my husband brought brown eggs home, and I wondered if the color of the egg made a difference in the results. So the boys and I reproduced the experiment, except this time using a brown egg.
Egg in Vinegar Experiment using a Brown Egg
This experiment is really easy. You literally just drop an egg into a jar of vinegar, and wait. But here are the supplies and steps we followed, and a couple of tips I learned after failing the first time.
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Supplies
- white vinegar
- 1 brown egg
- 1 clear mason jar with lid
Brown Egg in Vinegar Experiment Procedure
Step 1: Fill your clear glass cup halfway with vinegar.
Step 2: Using a spoon, slowly lower the brown egg into the vinegar. Don’t drop it too quickly, or the egg will crack (like it did the first time I tried this experiment). You will see bubbles form when you place the egg in. Make sure you keep the lid off the jar until the bubbles settle down.
Step 3: Place the glass on your countertop for 4 days, then take the egg out of the vinegar, and observe how the egg has changed!
Our Egg Experiment Results
Before we pulled our egg out of it’s vinegar bath, we observed what had happened to the egg. We noticed there was some brown pieces of something floating at the top of the vinegar. After discussing it for a little, we all thought it was part of the egg’s shell.
We were partially right. A little research taught us that the pieces were calcium from the egg shell. The vinegar causes a chemical reaction that breaks up the calcium carbonate into calcium and carbonate. The carbonate then reacts with the vinegar to release carbon dioxide, which is why we saw bubbles when we first placed the egg into the vinegar!
I let me my oldest remove the egg from the jar. Here’s him taking the egg out, and our first reactions to what we found!
The egg shell was now rubbery, and the egg bounced! It had completely changed! Apparently an egg without calcium carbonate can bounce (just a little).
We compared the vinegar egg to a plain egg, and it had also grown! The egg is larger because an egg shell without calcium carbonate is a semipermeable membrane. Once some of the calcium carbonate is removed from the shell, vinegar starts to pass through the egg shell into the egg. Since the egg shell has lost its rigidity, the vinegar passing into the egg causes it to grow!
We tried slicing the egg, thinking it may be solid. Turns out it wasn’t, and the egg just popped like a small, vinegar smelling water balloon, with the yoke completely in tact!
Our egg in vinegar experiment was so fun AND so easy! If you try it, I would love to see! Tag me on Instagram (@fromengineertosahm) or on Facebook (@fromengineertosahm) and share your vinegar eggs!
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