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No bones about it, calcium and vinegar just don't mix, as you'll see in this
eggs-ellent science experiment!
What you'll need:
- egg
- small glass jar
- vinegar
- chicken bones (thin bones from a cooked chicken wing work best)
What to do:
Place the egg in the jar. Pour in some vinegar until the egg is covered. Tiny bubbles
will soon appear all over the shell.
What happens:
Over the next few hours the hard shell of the egg will disappear. What's left behind is
the quivering, rubbery egg sac that surrounds the egg white and yolk and keeps them intact. (Be
sure to handle this delicate "rubber" egg carefully, or you'll have a big mess on your hands!)
Why this happens:
The vinegar is an acid that dissolves the calcium in the shell.
Wanna see this in action again? Then place a thin bone from a cooked chicken wing
into a glass of vinegar. After a few days, the acid in the vinegar will break down a hard material
called calcium carbonate in the chicken bone. (You may need to replace the vinegar with a fresh
supply every two days or so.) Then bend that bone--why, you'll think it came from a rubber chicken!
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