Easter is the time for fun and frolic. What do you say about combining some learning too with it? Not so excited? Well, this learning does not require you to open your study books, or read paragraphs of boring theory. This is all about experimenting, and learning by doing. It is Easter, and what else other than Easter eggs to make your Easter science party exciting? Let us see some Easter egg science experiments.
Floating egg experiment
Put an egg into a glass of water. Will it sink or float? You have the answer ready in your mind. It will sink. But you can have an egg that floats on top, or even an egg that remains suspended half-way in a glass of water. Let us see what all we need for this experiment.
What we need
Tall transparent drinking glass – 3
Eggs – 3
Salt – two to three cups
Water
Procedure
- Fill the first glass with plain water, leaving some space on top.
- Put an egg into the glass. Needless to say, it sinks to the bottom.
- Fill water up to half in the second glass.
- Add salt to the water. Keep on adding more and more, until it will no longer dissolve. Stir well. Now we have a saturated solution of salt and water.
- Put an egg into this salt water, and observe what happens.
- The egg does not sink. It floats over the water.
- Now, fill water up to half, in the third glass.
- Add salt to the water, and keep stirring. Again, we need enough salt so that the water is saturated.
- Slowly and gently, fill up the glass with plain water leaving some space on top. Do not stir the water.
- Put the last egg into this glass. Observe what happens.
- You will notice that the egg sinks a little, but floats at half level. This should be exactly where we added plain water!
What we learn
Why do some objects sink in water, while others float? It is because of the difference in the density of substances. If the density of an object is less than that of water, it floats. If its density is more than that of water, it sinks.
When we put the egg in plain water, it sank as the density of egg was more than that of plain water. We added salt to the second glass to make it denser. So the egg floated over the surface of the water.
What happened in the third glass? Why did the egg stop half way? This is also due to the difference in densities of plain water and salt water. The egg will drop off till the plain water level, and stop where it becomes denser.
You might wonder why the plain water and salt water do not get mixed up. Yes, it will get mixed if you wait for some time. So for the last egg experiment to be successful, we need to act quickly after pouring plain water over salt water. But be careful while pouring plain water over salt water. If you don’t do it gently, the entire water gets mixed up instantly.
We have learned how to float an egg. Now, let us go deeper. Will an orange sink or float? Will a peeled orange or an unpeeled orange sink in water? Find out in this orange sink or float experiment.
Easter egg rocket experiment
Launching a rocket with eggs! These Easter egg science experiments sound exciting, right? Don’t expect your rocket to reach outer space. Your egg rocket will fly up just a little, but it looks fantastic, for sure. For this experiment, we need plastic eggs, and not the real ones. Let us see what else we need.
What we need
Plastic eggs (which can be opened into two halves, and can stand upright)
Alka-Seltzer or any other fizzy tablet
Water
Flat tray
Procedure
- Stand the egg in the tray. If your egg does not have a built-in stand, you can use a small bottle cap to hold it upright.
- Open the top half of the egg, and fill water inside.
- Drop 2 to 3 Alka-Seltzer tablets into the water.
- Close the upper half of the egg quickly. Make sure that it is loosely closed, or your rocket may fail to launch.
- Step aside and watch what happens.
- If your egg is transparent, you will notice bubbles forming inside the egg. In a few seconds, the top half of the egg flies off into the air! Wasn’t that a mini version of a rocket launcher?
What we learn
Though our egg rocket looked simple and worked efficiently, we need to understand the science that caused the tiny explosion which triggered the rocket. Alka-Seltzer tablets are made up of citric acid and sodium bicarbonate, which is a base. We know that acids and bases react with each other. As both these ingredients are in a dry state, they do not react with each other while in the tablet form.
When we put the tablets in water, they dissolve. The acid-base reaction leads to the release of carbon dioxide gas. This gas rises up as bubbles, and gets filled inside the egg. When the plastic egg can no longer contain the gas, it bursts open, and we see the upper half of the egg flying off.
Egg drop experiment
Drop an egg without breaking it. Sounds impossible, right? Actually, this can be done. No, don’t think that we are referring to the naked egg experiment. This is the trickiest among all Easter egg science experiments. It is about dropping an egg perched high up, into a glass of water without touching or breaking it. It requires skill and a small amount of luck for this experiment to be successful. Let us check the accessories needed for this.
What we need
Tall drinking glass
Flat aluminum pan (any lightweight pan)
Cardboard roll (or an empty toilet paper roll)
Water
Egg
Procedure
- Fill the glass with water. Do not fill to the brim.
- Place the pan over the glass. The center of the pan should be over the glass.
- Place the cardboard roll vertically at the center of the pan.
- Now place the egg over the roll in such a way that the egg is lying on its side.
- Next step is to drop the egg into the glass of water without touching it. You can touch only the pan, and nothing else.
- With a swift motion, hit the edge of the pan with your hand. You should apply force in a horizontal motion.
- If your hit was swift, strong and clean, you will see the pan and cardboard roll flying away, but the egg will directly fall into the glass. If your egg falls outside, it means that you need more practice.
What we learn
What we saw in this egg drop experiment was the application of one of the most fundamental principles of science. Newton’s first law of motion states that an object at rest will stay at rest, unless acted upon by an external force. So an object which is stationary, tends to continue in that state. This is also called inertia.
In our experiment, the egg is an object at rest. It is resting over the cardboard roll, which in turn, is over the pan. We applied an external force to the pan. It slid off from the top of the glass. The cardboard roll is directly in contact with the pan. As it is not heavy, it flew off along with the pan.
But the egg is heavier than the roll. Egg lost its support when the roll under it flew off, but inertia caused the egg to continue in that position for a split second. Then gravity played its part, and pulled it down, straight into the glass of water. As there was water to cushion the drop, the egg did not break. Wasn’t that simple?
Did you enjoy these Easter egg science experiments? We have more for you in our Experiments section.