When I was a kid, my dad once showed me and my siblings how to make a pickle glow ... with electricity. I remember being both confused and amazed. It was precisely the sort of thing that a young boy who likes science would enjoy. As it turns out, you can do all sorts of really interesting stuff with household items. All you have to do is apply just the right stimuli or chemical, and something kind of amazing can happen.
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't warn you about that whole pickle thing. You're actually making a resistor out of the pickle, which means that electricity is flowing through the pickle. In fact, there's enough electricity going through the pickle that it can do you serious harm if you're not careful. Be careful if you try that at home, kids.
Well, I came up with one of those types of experiments, complete with the associated danger, all by myself. In my case, I did so completely by accident.
In order to replicate this particular experiment, you'll need a pot of water, and six raw eggs. Start by putting the eggs in the water, and putting the pot over a stove. Turn on the stove, as if you were going to make hard boiled eggs. Oh, and cover the pot with a lid. From the outside, it should look exactly as if all you want to do is hard boil some eggs.
The crucial difference, however, comes with what happens next. Let the stove burn and burn, to the point where all of the water boils off. To a casual observer, it may look like you completely forgot that the stove was on. Don't mind them, though; you can continue on with your experiment. If you just so happen to smell something sulfuric coming from pot, that's normal. Eggs do that when left on the stove for that long (apparently). You can even justify it to yourself by wondering what the heck the downstairs neighbors are doing that weird smells are coming from their apartment.
Eventually, one or more of the eggs will explode. I mean quite literally. I had bits of shell and extra hard-boiled egg splattered across the wall and nearby refrigerator. In fact, that was the part that tipped me off that my experiment had come to a close. I quickly ran to the kitchen to conclude said experiment (i.e., turn off the stove and clean up the mess), and noted that I didn't even realize eggs could do that.
Now, this is a science experiment, so I made sure to document my findings:
The part at the top that looks like a miniature crater is actually where this particular egg was facing down on the pot. It had the most heat applied to it, so it bore the brunt of the experiment. Incidentally, none of the eggs were safe to consume. Just ... don't.
And that, kids, is how you make an egg explode. It's a pretty simple household experiment. One that I have zero intention of ever repeating.
(All kidding aside, I'm just glad that things weren't a lot worse. I got pretty lucky. I could have very easily started a fire, or been walking by when the egg exploded. I know I joked about it in this blog post, but I wouldn't recommend trying to replicate this. There are very, very good odds that you'll regret it. I did it once and I consider myself extremely lucky that all I had to do was clean up.)
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't warn you about that whole pickle thing. You're actually making a resistor out of the pickle, which means that electricity is flowing through the pickle. In fact, there's enough electricity going through the pickle that it can do you serious harm if you're not careful. Be careful if you try that at home, kids.
Well, I came up with one of those types of experiments, complete with the associated danger, all by myself. In my case, I did so completely by accident.
In order to replicate this particular experiment, you'll need a pot of water, and six raw eggs. Start by putting the eggs in the water, and putting the pot over a stove. Turn on the stove, as if you were going to make hard boiled eggs. Oh, and cover the pot with a lid. From the outside, it should look exactly as if all you want to do is hard boil some eggs.
The crucial difference, however, comes with what happens next. Let the stove burn and burn, to the point where all of the water boils off. To a casual observer, it may look like you completely forgot that the stove was on. Don't mind them, though; you can continue on with your experiment. If you just so happen to smell something sulfuric coming from pot, that's normal. Eggs do that when left on the stove for that long (apparently). You can even justify it to yourself by wondering what the heck the downstairs neighbors are doing that weird smells are coming from their apartment.
Eventually, one or more of the eggs will explode. I mean quite literally. I had bits of shell and extra hard-boiled egg splattered across the wall and nearby refrigerator. In fact, that was the part that tipped me off that my experiment had come to a close. I quickly ran to the kitchen to conclude said experiment (i.e., turn off the stove and clean up the mess), and noted that I didn't even realize eggs could do that.
Now, this is a science experiment, so I made sure to document my findings:
And that, kids, is how you make an egg explode. It's a pretty simple household experiment. One that I have zero intention of ever repeating.
(All kidding aside, I'm just glad that things weren't a lot worse. I got pretty lucky. I could have very easily started a fire, or been walking by when the egg exploded. I know I joked about it in this blog post, but I wouldn't recommend trying to replicate this. There are very, very good odds that you'll regret it. I did it once and I consider myself extremely lucky that all I had to do was clean up.)
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