The Egg in the Bottle Trick How to get the hard-boiled egg into the milk bottle.

email to friend

Here's a classic science experiment that is more than a hundred years old and is guaranteed to fool your friends. The original demonstration used a hard-boiled egg and a milk bottle.

WARN N!" This experiment re#uires the help of an adult partner. $on't %ust pick any adult... try to find a smart one&

Materials
'ou'll need" - A (ide mouth %uice bottle - Hardboiled eggs - )e*eral strips of paper +,-. inches/ - 0atches - A fe( balloons - Water. The classic *ersion of this experiment used a glass milk bottle. f you can get your hands on one of these bottle1 you'll be in science hea*en&

The ob%ect of the challenge (as to someho( get the (hole egg into the bottle (ithout harming the egg. )ince old milk bottles are hard to come by1 here2s a modern day *ersion of the same experiment only this time (e2re using a %uice bottle and a (ater balloon& 'our %ob is to get the balloon in the bottle1 but don2t break the balloon1 or you2ll be all (et. 3. 4arefully fill the balloon (ith (ater1 so the balloon is about the si5e of a tennis ball1 and tie if off. 0ake se*eral balloons %ust in case the first one breaks& ,. Rinse out the bottle to remo*e any lefto*er1 sticky1 slimy stuff that might be in the bottom. 6efore going any further1 make sure that the (ater balloon is slightly larger than the mouth of the bottle. 7. Here2s the challenge" 'our %ob is to find a (ay to get the balloon into the bottle8 (ithout breaking it. Ho( are you going to do it9 t2s important that you take a minute to test out some of your ideas before %umping ahead to read our solution. :eep trying& ;nce you get the balloon in the bottle1 ho( are you going to get it back out9 Here's our ans(er& 3. )tart by smearing some (ater around the mouth of the bottle. ,. Ha*e the adult light a match and set the strip of paper on fire. <uickly put the burning strip into the bottle. 6e careful not to accidentally burn your fingers. 7. mmediately co*er the mouth of the bottle (ith the balloon. n %ust seconds1 the balloon (ill start to (iggle around on the top of the bottle1 the fire (ill go out1 and some in*isible force (ill literally =push> the balloon into the bottle. That2s ama5ing& Try it with an egg! ?ust repeat the steps abo*e substituting a hardboiled egg for the (ater balloon. The trick here is to find an egg that is %ust a little bigger than the mouth of the bottle - prefer medium si5e eggs. The other little secret is to grease the mouth of the bottle (ith a *egetable oil so the egg slides right in&

How does it work?

The burning piece of paper heats the molecules of air in the bottle and causes the molecules to mo*e far a(ay from each other. )ome of the heated molecules actually escape out past the (ater balloon that is resting on the mouth of the bottle +that2s (hy the balloon (iggles on top of the bottle/. When the flame goes out1 the molecules of air in the bottle cool do(n and mo*e closer together. This is (hat scientists refer to as a =partial *acuum =. Normally the air outside the bottle (ould come rushing in to fill the bottle. Ho(e*er1 that darn (ater balloon is in the (ay& The =push> or pressure of the air molecules outside the bottle is so great that it literally pushes the balloon into the bottle. Remember this" When molecules of air heat up1 they mo*e far a(ay from each other and take up more space. When molecules of air cool do(n1 they mo*e closer together and

take up less space. No(1 the challenge is to get the balloon out of the bottle. @se (hat you ha*e learned about air and air pressure to come up (ith a (ay to get the balloon back out. Hint" Try sneaking a stra( along side the balloon (hen you pull it out. f the outside air can get inside the bottle1 the (ater balloon (ill come out&