Disappearing Egg Shell

I have been seeing the disappearing egg shell experiment floating around on pinterest for some time now and I wanted to give it a try.

Materials:

• Vinegar
• Egg*
• Cup or Glass

*(You could use raw or hard boiled. Hard boiled would be less messy less messy but what fun is that?)

Set the egg inside your glass and fill it with vinegar until it is covered. If your egg floats and some of it pops above the surface that is fine. 

Notice the bubbles?

After 24 hours carefully take the egg out and examine it.

The egg should be soft a squishy. 

Careful not to squeeze too hard!!

If any of the shell is remaining you should be able to carefully rub it off. 

You can barely see the yolk!

It also grew in size (or as my 4 year old said - "It ballooned!")

What happened to the shell?

Egg shells contain something called "calcium carbonate".  This is what makes the shell hard.
Vinegar is an acid known as acetic acid.
When calcium carbonate (the egg shell) and acetic acid (the vinegar) combine, a chemical reaction takes place and carbon dioxide (a gas) is released.  This is what the bubbles are made of.
The chemical reaction keeps happening until all of the carbon in the egg is used up .
When you take the egg out of the vinegar it's soft because all of the carbon floated out of the egg in those little bubbles.


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