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The nude egg
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Materials

      Egg.
      Glass.
 
Compounds

      Vinegar (acetic acid).
 
Videos:  
download1.avi   (144 KB)



Pictures:  











Procedure

     1. Fill half of the total volume of a glass with vinegar.

     2. Put the egg inside the glass. What do you observe? (add more vinegar if it doesn't cover the egg totally)

     3. Observe the bubbles of gas that are formed in the surface of egg.

     4. Observe periodically what happens in the next hours.

     5. After one day you will be able to verify that the egg is completely nude and is larger than before.
 
Why?

Now you know how to remove the egg peel without breaking it. The peel of the egg is made off calcium carbonate and the vinegar is a diluted solution of acetic acid. In the present experiment, the acetic acid reacts with the carbonate of calcium contained in the peel of the egg, producing carbon dioxide. The reaction is faster in the initial instants because the reagents are in maxim concentration.
In the end of the experiment, the egg without peel stays stable. That is due to the existence of a surface membrane that doesn't react with the vinegar. However, this membrane has the capacity to allow the migration of the vinegar from out to in of the egg. The fact that the egg is larger in the end of the experiment is due to the migration of vinegar to the interior of the egg. In other words, we are in the presence of a natural selective membrane. Now that you already understood this experiment, you already know how to remove the egg clothes without breaking it. With science, the impossible becomes possible! Try it and enjoy science!





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