Walking On Eggs Science Experiment!

We've been learning a lot about birds lately, and I was sure the kids would be excited to try science experiment involving walking on raw eggs!

Surprisingly, though, my children were much more worried about the eggs cracking under their feet during this science project!  They were, however, very happy to watch me attempt (successfully!) walking on eggs.  They even took the picture (I know...little kid feet would have been so much cuter, but...you get what you get.)!

If you want to try this with your own kids, here are a few tips:

* The tips of the eggs are the strongest part (notice the arch shape).  Make sure all your eggs are sitting in the same direction.  I put mine pointy-side up.

* The secret is to spread the force of your weight out over as much area as possible.  If your heel isn't big enough to sit on four eggs, place it carefully between four of them.  Make contact with as many eggs as possible.  If you're working with older kids, get into the mathematics of how the pressure on each egg decreases when the force is applied over a greater area.  (Pressure = Force / Area)  This is the same principle behind lying on a bed of nails.

* If you are walking on eggs and young children are your support team, place your first carton of eggs near a wall or other strong support that you can lean on while you climb onto the first carton.  It is very important to place your weight on as many eggs as possible at the same time--one or two eggs getting an uneven amount of weight (from your heel or toe pad) will crack.  Cracked eggs are messy.

* Okay, so there are two other tricks to this.  The first one is that the eggs are in the egg carton.  Tradition holds that Joseph Coyle invented the egg carton in 1911 to protect eggs that were traveling from a farm to a hotel.  Apparently, the hotel owner and the farmer were often upset at each other over broken eggs, but Coyle's invention prevented eggs from cracking...then and now.  The individual compartments support and strengthen the eggs.  It would be much more difficult to walk on eggs that were simply lying in the grass.

* The last secret is that eggs really are much stronger than they look.  Birds that weigh as much as my kids sit on their eggs to keep them warm while their babies grow.  As I stepped onto the second carton, the first carton actually held my entire weight (balanced on one foot!) for several seconds.

* Remember to wash your hands and feet with soapy water, especially if you crack some eggs.  Eggs can carry salmonella, and nobody wants to get sick.

* And, just to review, the eggs we buy at the store for this science experiment will never grow into baby chickens.  They are unfertilized and will never become anything more than what they are when you buy them...unless, of course, you cook them into something yummy! Make sure the kids know this so they won't feel worried during the science project.

Happy Educating,

Carla

I may share at any of these parties!