Rubber Egg and Chicken Bones Experiments for Kids

A Mad Scientist can make a toy out of just about anything, including a boiled egg. Soak an egg in a common kitchen ingredient, vinegar, to dissolve its shell and make the egg rubbery enough that you can bounce it on the floor like a ball. Soaking chicken bones in vinegar will soften them so that they will become rubbery and flexible.

Rubber Egg Materials

You only need a few simple materials for this project:

• Hard-boiled egg
• Glass or jar, big enough to hold the egg
• Vinegar

Turn the Egg into a Bouncy Ball

1. Place the egg in the glass or jar.
2. Add enough vinegar to completely cover the egg.
3. Watch the egg. What do you see? Little bubbles may come off the egg as the acetic acid in the vinegar attacks the calcium carbonate of the eggshell. Over time the color of the eggs may change as well.
4. After 3 days, remove the egg and gently rinse the shell off of the egg with tap water.
5. How does the boiled egg feel? Try bouncing the egg on a hard surface. How high can you bounce your egg?
6. You can soak raw eggs in vinegar for 3-4 days, with a slightly different result. The eggs shell will become soft and flexible. You can gently squeeze these eggs, but it's not a great plan to try to bounce them on the floor.

Make Rubbery Chicken Bones

If you soak chicken bones in vinegar (the thinner bones work best), the vinegar will react with the calcium in the bones and weaken them so that they will become soft and rubbery, as if they had come from a rubber chicken. It is the calcium in your bones that makes them hard and strong. As you age, you may deplete the calcium faster than you replace it. If too much calcium is lost from your bones, they may become brittle and susceptible to breaking. Exercising and eating a diet that includes calcium-rich foods can help prevent this from happening.