Naked Egg Experiment

This week the girls and I tried out a really cool experiment I had recently seen on one of the blogs I follow.  It was super easy, and just required a couple days of patience.  :)  Simply place an egg in a jar or other container and fill with enough vinegar to cover the egg completely.  Then wait.  The vinegar dissolves the outer shell of the egg while leaving the inner membrane intact, and within a couple of days you have a "naked" egg!

It wasn't as fragile as I thought it would be; in fact it felt rather dense in weight and spongy like a bouncy ball.  We added a bit of food coloring to the vinegar this morning to dye the eggs.  Doing a little more research on this experiment, we read that if you submerse it in water after the shell has been dissolved, the membrane actually absorbs the water into the egg and makes it larger, much like a sponge works.  We'll be trying that next!

And of course, it goes without saying that because the egg has been soaking in straight vinegar un-refrigerated for a couple of days, eating it afterward is NOT recommended!