You will need
- At least 2 eggs (we used 4 to be on the safe side)
- A bowl to save the egg yolks and whites (maybe use this for the Baked Alaska science cooking activity!)
- Books
- Optional: paints, paintbrushes and paper
- Be aware of egg vapour allergies in your class
Carefully crack the eggs into a bowl. Don’t waste the egg contents, they are perfect for the Baked Alaska activity or simply for an extra yummy breakfast.
Wash the eggshells under running water and leave them to dry. You may want to trim the edges of the eggshells with scissors too.
Arrange your eggshells so that they can support your stack of books.
Gently place your first book onto the eggshells.
Extension: If you have access to some scales, this is a good chance to measure the mass of each book prior to adding them onto the stack.
Keep carefully adding books onto the eggshells… how many can they hold?
As long as you keep the books centred, they can support quite a bit of weight!
Keep going until the books crush the eggshells!
Optional – paint your eggs before testing their strength!
Even if the edges of the eggshells are chipped, they still can handle a lot of weight!
Get the Unit of Work on Forces here!
- Push, pull
- Friction & spin!
From inertia to centripetal force, this unit covers many concepts about Newton’s Laws!
Includes cross-curricular teaching ideas, student quizzes, a sample marking rubric, scope & sequences & more
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What is going on?
Eggshells are very strong if they are compressed. The curved shape of the eggshell allows the force to be spread horizontally and vertically throughout the shell.
You can think of an eggshell as being like a 360-degree arched bridge. Engineers have known about the strength of arches for thousands of years. Arches are very stable and allow building structures to support a lot of weight. Some structures built by the ancient Romans have survived thousands of years due to arches built into their design.
Road safety application
Bike helmet curved surfaces help to distribute forces around the skull rather than directly onto the skull during a bike crash. However, it’s not just about the ability to distribute force in a bike helmet that protects you, its also the ability of the foam within the bike helmet to crumple and absorb the impact energy experienced when colliding with the ground.
Curved surfaces also distribute forces in cars and in a similar way to bike helmets, modern cars have crumple zones designed to absorb the impact forces experienced during a car crash.
Variables to test
- What happens if you add more eggshell halves to your experiment?
- Compare having 3 vs. 4 eggshell halves… does this hold a significantly greater weight?
- Try different types of eggs
Going further
If you’re game… try the standing on eggs experiment too!
Forces, Friction & Movement
Years K to 6
Maximum 30 students
School workshop
60 or 90 minutes
Online Class Available
STEM Full Day Accelerator - Primary
Designed from real classroom experiences, this modular day helps you create consistently effective science learning that directly address the new curriculum with easily accessible and cost-effective materials.
Hands-on Kids Science Party
>20 hands on science experiments
Gigantic bubbles
Slime making
Professional science show
From $395 inc. GST
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