Super Domes
WHAT YOU NEED:
- 4 eggs
- Tape
- Pen
- Sharp scissors
- Something to use a flat base surface –
like a tray
- Heavy books
- An oldie to help you out!
WHAT TO DO:
1. Carefully tap the pointy end of your egg
to break the shell.The rest of the egg
needs to stay in one piece!Pour out the
contents of the egg – save it for breakfast!
2. Stick tape around the middle of the
egg.Draw a line around the widest part
and ask your oldie to score it with some scissors.
3. Start carefully breaking off bits of
shell from the pointy bit to the line, and use the scissors to carefully snip
around the line.Be careful – if the
shell breaks past the line you’ll have to start over!Do this with the other three eggs as well.
4. Lay out your eggs in a rectangle shape.Carefully lay your tray on top of the eggs as
a flat base.Then start stacking – see
how many books you can stack onto the eggs before they break – you might be
surprised!
Tips:
When you’re stacking your books on your
eggs, lay them down as carefully and evenly as possible so the weight is
distributed evenly over the four eggs.
Stand well back in between each weight you
add because the eggs may give way suddenly!
Don’t carry this experiment out near
breakables!
The Extreme Science behind this:
Eggshells are very thin and fragile, but
eggs are surprisingly strong – this is because of their dome structure!A dome is like a set of arches arranged in a
circle – which is a very strong structure because its shape evenly spreads any
weight that is placed upon it.The
weight that you put on the eggshells is balanced by the dome shape of the eggs
which distributes the weight along the curve of the eggshell.
This is why if you squeeze an egg in the
middle, it can crack, but if you squeeze it end to end, it stays strong!