Feb 2, 2007
Egg in a Bottle
Ever fancied squeezing an egg into a bottle? No? Well, it’s a kind of perennial physics demonstration that science teachers the world over love to do. I could simply describe how to do it and the results you might expect, but that would be no fun at all. Instead, I spent a good ten minutes scanning videos on the net where individuals attempted to carry out this experiment, some of them more successfully than others. Most handling naked flames and solvents (methylated spirits and the like) in a non-laboratory setting with absolutely no safety equipment (not even goggles) in sight.
More importantly though, most of these experimenters managed to get most of the egg in the bottle, but usually the egg split and simply splurted into the bottle rather than squeezing through the neck and plopping into the bottle intact.
In this video, the “researchers” succeeded in getting a nice squeeze and plop (far better even than the Brainiac team in their attempt).
The key to their success is apparently using a bottle with a nice wide neck. Most of the other videos try to use a beer bottle or something similar which constricts the egg as it squeezes through the opening and splits it.
So, how does it work? What mysterious force is pulling the egg into the bottle? Well, the answer is there is no mystery it is simply air pressure pushing down on the egg. But, wait a minute, what’s the burning paper got to do with air pressure?
Okay, here’s the short of it. Dropping a burning spill (or burning piece of paper into a bottle) and the air in the bottle will quickly expand and a small volume escapes. When the hard-boiled egg (with the shell removed) is placed into the opening, the spill goes out, the remaining gas cools and contracts and the greater outside air pressure pushes the moist flexible egg into the hole nicely.
If you use a nice moist egg and a bottle with a wide enough neck you’ll get a nice squeeze and plop. Anyone who has a use for a hard-boiled egg covered in burnt paper stuck in a bottle is welcome to contact us at Sciencebase with their ideas. Additionally, if you know how to get the egg out again without breaking the bottle leave us you thoughts in the comment form.
To get the egg back out simply turn the bottle upside down so the egg seals in the neck. Then put the bottle under hot running water. The same principal pushes the egg out that got it in there to begin with. We did learn something from the experiment, right?
you want to get the egg out of the bottle without breaking the jar well heres the answer blow inside the jar or suck the egg out of the bottle
tnx 4 dis experiment !! it help me a lot =)
to get the egg out of the bottle, you just have to place your lips inside of it.(not outside, because when the egg comes out, it may go into your throat.) Anyway, once your in place, you blow out about twice.**Shouldn’t take anymore than 3 blows. Once you blow, take your mouth away before the eggs hits your face! Trust me, this works. We tried this in my Science class. It was so much fun(:
To get it out, turn the bottle over so the egg plugs the opening from the inside. Blow hard into the bottle. The egg will pop out.