Science Smarts: A little experiment to kickstart students’ return to class
By Patty Rooks on February 25, 2023.
I hope everyone had a wonderful February break and you are now ready to get back to school! It may be hard to get your students back into the “swing of things,” so I thought I would come up with an interesting experiment teachers could do as they start science classes off again this week. I think your students will be amazed. Let’s get started! *Remember to ask an adult before you do this experiment. Materials – Hardboiled egg peeled – Narrow mouth glass bottle – Matches – Scissors – Paper – Safe place to work Procedure 1. Find a safe place to work as this experiment involves burning paper so we should have a clear counter or I like to work in the sink at home. 2. Cut a few strips of paper. The strips should be about 10 cm x 2 cm. 3. Have an adult light the strip of paper with the matches and carefully drop it inside the bottle. 4. Place the hardboiled egg directly on the mouth of the glass bottle. 5. Watch what happens. What is going on? You should have observed that when you put the hardboiled egg on top of the mouth of the bottle, the paper may have extinguished. Keep watching though. Something amazing happens. The egg is literally sucked into the bottle; slowly at first and then right to the bottom! How does this happen? Well, when the flame goes out, the molecules of air in the bottle actually begin to cool down. As they cool down, they become closer together creating a vacuum. Normally, air would come rushing into the bottle as this vacuum is created, but the egg is in the way. There is a push of air from outside the bottle that is great enough to actually push the egg into the bottle! The trick now is to get the egg out. To get the egg out of the bottle, turn the bottle upside down and blow into it. The increased air pressure in the bottle will cause the egg to pop back out. Patty Rooks, Senior Scientific Consultant PRAXIS, “Connecting Science To The Community”. Contact Praxis at praxis@praxismh.ca, http://www.praxismh.ca, Tweet or follow us @PraxisMedHat, or friend us on Facebook. Address: #12 826 11 Street S. E., Medicine Hat, Alberta, T1A 1T7 Phone: 403.527.5365, email: praxis@praxismh.ca. 23-22
