We've been doing a lot of science experiments lately in the RVRS homeschool classroom. With Skylar being in the eleventh grade, there's so many things I want to fit into our schedule, but have to pick and choose which ones will give them best educational experience. One of the experiments is using a hardboiled egg, a match, and a bottle to create a vacuum with the change in air pressure with the heating and cooling air inside and outside the bottle. Here is our homemade vacuum egg experiment and how you can duplicate the same experiment in your own home.
Start with boiling an egg to hardboiled status. About five minutes for most eggs.
Next, grab a glass bottle and make sure the opening is wide enough to just have the hardboiled egg sit comfortably on top of the bottle opening.
Next, light a match and allow to burn for about three seconds. Drop the match into the bottle and place the hardboiled egg on top. And, wait. The match should burn out and you are left with the hardboiled egg being pulled inside of the bottle.
Once the air pressure inside the bottle changes from the outside air, POP goes the egg inside the bottle. But, why does this happen?
Heat causes the air inside the bottle to expand. When the egg is placed on top of the bottle, this causes the oxygen for the fire to burn to be cut off. Therefore, the fire goes out. When the fire goes out, this causes the air inside the bottle to contact as the air outside the bottle is trying to compete with the air inside the bottle. It has to remove what's blocking that process, so the air outside pushes on the egg to meet with the air inside. This is how vacuums are created (in theory). Of course a vacuum is the lack of all air, so in turn, we create a "mini" vacuum by playing with fire.
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