5th/6th class got eggs-perimental this week with a super experiment.
We put a hard boiled egg in a glass of vinegar for four days to see what would happen. We made great predictions first.
After four days, the egg had lost its shell – well, actually, the egg’s shell dissolved in the vinegar. We learned that this is because the eggs shell is made from calcium (just like our teeth and bones) and the vinegar is an acid that breaks the calcium down.
It’s this reaction that caused the limestone in the Burren in County Clare to form the way it is – because of the acid in the rain. The limestone is a sedimentary rock, formed from the bones of creatures like fish and animals over thousands of years – so it’s also made of calcium.
Hmmm. now we know why fizzy drinks are so bad for our teeth – it’s the acid that wears away our lovely teeth, which are formed from all that great calcium in our bodies. The fizzy drinks are full of carbonic acid!
We are designing our own experiments now to test which acids are strongest – we’ll carry out our tests next week – watch this space!
