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Egg in a Bottle Experiment
Grade Level: 5
Expectations: Understanding Matter and Energy
Topic: Properties of and Changes in Matter
Expectations:
3.1 Identify matter as everything that has mass and occupies space
3.2 Identify properties of solids, liquids, and gases (e.g., solids have definite volume and
hold their shape; liquids have definite volume but take the shape of their container or
spread when they are not contained; gases have no definite volume and take the volume
and shape of their container or spread when they are not contained), and state examples
of each.
Materials Needed:
1 hard boiled egg
Matches or Lighter & piece of paper to burn
Glass bottle with a smaller top opening than that of the egg
Description of Procedure:
Step 1
The first thing you need to do is to get an egg and boil it until it becomes hardboiled. If
this is being conducted by a younger student adult supervision is recommended. To hard
boil an egg it usually takes around 7 minutes
Step 2
Once the egg has cooled down you can peel the shell off the egg before the experiment
itself is conducted
Step 3
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Once the egg preparation is completed, you need a glass bottle that has a top smaller than
your egg. With your lighter, take a piece of paper and light it on fire and quickly put the
piece of paper in the bottle or light a match and drop it into the bottle.
Step 4
Quickly put the egg on top of the bottle and the egg will slowly be pushed into the bottle.
Step 5
To get the egg out of the bottle the pressure must be reversed. Flip the bottle slightly so
the egg comes back to the top of the bottle. With the egg slightly covering the hole. Blow
into the bottle. This will cause the egg to shoot back out of the bottle.
Scientific Explanation:
When the piece of paper is lit inside the bottle the air inside the bottle becomes
hot. Due to the change in temperature the air molecules become excited and begin
moving faster and further away from each other. As a result of the excitement, the
molecules require more space – the container cannot contain all the molecules due to the
increased space needed, so many leave the jar. Some of the air molecules leaving the jar
results in the egg bouncing a bit on the lip of the jar. When the piece of paper is finally
burnt out the air cools down immediately. As the air cools, the air molecules begin to lose
some of the excitement, slow down and draw closer together. The air molecules in the
bottle take up less space than the molecules left the bottle when they were excited
resulting in a pressure differential between the inside and outside of the bottle. As a
result, the higher air pressure outside the bottle pushes the egg into the bottle where there
is a lower air pressure (fewer air molecules in a given space).
When you want to get the egg back out of the bottle you want to increase the
pressure inside the bottle so that there is less outside the bottle. This is the same concept
of higher and lower pressures outside and inside of the bottle mentioned above, but the
opposite. Essentially you want to move the egg back to the top of the container and then
blow inside the bottle. The egg will then come shooting back out the way in went in due
to the addition of pressure created by blowing into the bottle and the increased space the
molecules desire.
Key Terms:
Molecule: the smallest particle of a pure chemical substance that still retains its
chemical composition and properties.
Pressure: The application of continuous force by one body on another that it is
touching; compression.
Gas: state of matter consisting of particles that have neither a defined volume nor
defined shape.
References:
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http://www.all-science-fairprojects.com/science_fair_projects/57/784/1dbcad47ba1aec22efe59a3bbbdcd5c3.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JBOX116Pzw
Gr. 1-8 Science and Technology Curriculum 2007 Revised