Posted by on Apr 1, 2015 in Easter Activities, Science Activities, Spring Crafts and Activities | 2 comments

As my bugs and I were getting ready to decorate eggs for Easter, I embraced a teachable moment by asking them whether they thought eggs were strong or weak. With little hesitation, both M and B replied that eggs were definitely weak. They’ve helped me in the kitchen numerous times, and cracking eggs is by far their favourite culinary skill (other than tasting of course), so they thought my question was a bit bizarre. Of course they’re weak mom! We’ve broken dozens on the floor… They didn’t believe me when I told them that eggs are actually very strong, so I challenged them to try to break an egg by squeezing it between their hands.

How Strong is An Egg?

I gave each of my boys a raw egg, and told them to press the pointy ends together as hard as they could. Eager to prove me wrong, the boys accepted my challenge :).

egg strength experiment 1  egg strength experiment 2

They were pretty surprised to discover that no matter how hard they squeezed they just couldn’t crack it! Ha! Mommy for the win!

 

Standing on Eggs Experiment

Then I took it a step further by asking them what would happen if they stood on the raw eggs in the carton. Again, they both thought the eggs would definitely break. *When I first tried this experiment, I ended up with raw eggs between my toes because I didn’t distribute my weight evenly… yech!*  This time, I made sure to have M step flat-footed onto the eggs to avoid any breakage…

egg strength experiment 5  egg strength experiment 4

and it worked!

The bacterium salmonella can exist on the inside and outside of raw eggs, which is why it is important to always wash your hands (and feet) with soapy water after coming into contact with raw eggs.

We talked about the shape of the egg, and how it has to be very strong to protect the babies growing inside, but it also has to have weak spots so the baby birds or reptiles can break out on their own. When an egg is positioned pointy end up, any weight exerted to the top of the egg is distributed evenly throughout the rest of the egg. The dome shape is very strong because there are no corners or angles, therefore no one point is burdened with the stress of excess weight.

Click on the links for more egg experiments and science experiments!

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