Egg Science Experiment With Inertia

By -
This week we're investigating an egg science experiment with inertia for the Farm Theme with the Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids!



This science project works great as either a demonstration or an experiment! It's stunning enough for a group and addicting enough for kids to want to manipulate the variables and test it over and over and over!

Let's start with a video! Watch the carefully balanced RAW egg drop safely into the cup of water:



Supplies:

* Tall cup, filled with water to about 1-2 inches from the brim
* raw egg
* egg carton top (I've also seen this done with a lightweight pie tin or lid with a flat bottom and short "lip.")
* cardboard tube (We used a toilet paper tube.)


So what's going on and how can you do it too? There are a lot of principles behind this little project, but my favorite is inertia because it explains so much of what is happening. Inertia is the tendency of an object at rest to stay at rest OR an object in motion to stay in motion until another force acts on it. Newton thought this concept was so important he made it the essence of his first law of motion! How do you see it in this experiment? The egg began at rest, and wanted to remain at rest...even when its supportive tower was knocked out from under it! Eventually, though, (okay, like less than half a second later...) gravity's downward force made the egg move...straight into the waiting cup of water!

The trick is to knock the tower out from under the egg without putting any sideways forces onto the egg. The best way to do this is to hit the pie tin quickly and with enough force to knock it out of the egg's path before the egg falls. The pie tin will pull the cardboard tube along with it. You should practice this a few times with just the egg carton and cardboard tube -- if you can make them fly off the cup without knocking the cup over, you can do it with the egg on too!  Then be sure to place the egg horizontally so the cardboard tube is less likely to pull the egg away with it.




Kids can experiment with setting up the apparatus themselves, trying different supplies for the "tower" (is there a difference in a toilet paper tube and a paper towel tube?!!), trying more than one egg at a time, and much more! See what they come up with, and make sure they try it too! Kids can totally do this, and they love it! (When I made the video above, my 10 year old set up and knocked over the egg tower. She can do it unsupervised, but you might want to supervise your younger kids--make sure the cardboard tube is directly over the cup.)  

Eggs are a lot of fun to learn about and conduct science experiments with! Here are a few of our other favorite egg science projects: Walking on Eggs, Preschool STEM with Dinosaur Eggs, and Floating Egg Science Experiment!


Eggs are also one of my favorite things to talk about when we study farms, birds, and Easter...they fit in everywhere! To join in this week's Virtual Book Club Farm Theme fun, hop over the Facebook Page for community fun, grab a copy of our featured book, Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (image below is an Amazon affiliate link), and check out the farm themed activities from our co-hosts below!


Farm Theme Activities from co-hosts:

Farm First Word Sounds- Teach Beside Me
Click Clack Alphabet Letter Learning Laptop Activity- JDaniel4's Mom
Farm Animal Letter Stamping - Mama Smiles
Farm Themed Name Recognition - Inspiration Laboratories
Farm Animal Math - My Storytime Corner
Farm Themed Sensory Bin-The Moments at Home
Easy Farm Animal Dump and Sort for Toddlers
Egg Science Experiment With Inertia - Preschool Powol Packets
Click Clack Moo Pencil Control Printable - Clare's Little Tots
Scissor Skills Printable To Help The Baby Farm Animals Find Their Moms - To Be A Kid Again
Farm Animal Domino Game - Rainy Day Mum
Click Clack Moo Activity with Shapes - The Educators' Spin On It
Farm Animal Dice Game - My Bored Toddler 


Have you seen HEEP? It is a preschool homeschool curriculum! Learn more here!





Happy Educating,
Carla


I may share at any of these parties!




Never miss another post again!  Sign up for our weekly updates newsletter and get links to all our posts once a week in your inbox!  Sign up here!!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Science Experiment: Elephant Toothpaste

By -
Image
Update: "Elephant toothpaste" is a science experiment that I used to do with my high school students.  It is a strong multi-sensory demonstration that goes great with a lot of chemistry concepts. It is also very popular with preschoolers and homeschoolers!  The internet loves it too! It has now been read by more than 3.9 million people! This was the post that started the trend on science activity sites across the internet and "irl!"  Thank you for being here...I hope you enjoy it as well!  💕  This exciting science experiment works great in a discussion on reactions, as a demonstration, or as an actual experiment. We've also done seasonal twists with "elephant toothpaste" like making it in a pumpkin and using it for " reindeer toothpaste !" To use it as a science project, perform it once with your child, then ask your child what might happen if you changed the amounts or left out an ingredient.  Any time you experiment
Read more

Kind Words Sensory Lesson Friendship Activity

By -
Image
This sensory lesson includes a kindness activity for kids that is short and sweet,  and makes teaching kindness a beautiful thing! Learning to use kind words with our friends is one friendship lesson that I think we can never cover enough...kids always need reminding (sometimes adults do too)!  You will need these simple supplies for the kindness activity: cotton balls, course sandpaper, cup, Should I Share My Ice-Cream by Mo Willems Directly teaching good friendship skills, like using kind words, serves two purposes: 1- You can refer to the lesson when someone forgets or needs reminding, and 2- These skills are not intuitive for all preschoolers. This is a perfect age to bring empathy and kindness to their attention and help them cultivate these skills! You can use this lesson plan exactly as I did it with our kiddos, or adapt it to fit your group! 1- Read  Should I Share My Ice-Cream  by Mo Willems.   {Image below is an Amazon Affiliate Link:} D
Read more

Crazy Cool Giraffe Science Experiment

By -
Image
Do you know what color giraffe skin is? Today we're using a capillary action science experiment to make our own giraffe skins in this fun giraffe science experiment project! (Read on...I'll tell you the color in a moment! AND I have a few more fun giraffe facts at the end! Anyway, go on and make a guess before you see the answer!) Fun Spot  Giraffe  Fact:  There are four different giraffe species:  the Masai Giraffe, the Rothschild Giraffe, the Somali Giraffe, and the Nigerian Giraffe.  Each has its own unique spot pattern.  Even more unique, every single individual giraffe has a different spot design.  Just like fingerprints on people and stripes on a zebra, spots on a giraffe are unique in every individual! Giraffe skin is mostly grey. (Were you right?) It's also really tough and thick.  The coat is a shade of tan with brown spots or patches.  Male giraffes actually get darker as they get older! To make our "giraffe skin" we're going to us
Read more