E is for Eggs – rolling eggs

Eggs are not just for eating, here at Science Sparks we’ve got lots of fun and easy egg themed activities for you to try.  Including a bit of science magic, investigating why eggs are so strong and even shrinking eggs.

Another fun egg activity is rolling eggs, which kept my children occupied for hours,  we simply timed eggs rolling down our slide, then wrapped them in different materials to see if that affected their speed.

Younger children will just enjoying rolling the eggs, but for older children you can spend time planning the experiment, thinking about which factors you need to keep constant and how to display your results.

You’ll need

• Egg – hard boiled might be safest
• Timer/Stop Watch
• Materials to wrap around the egg – bubble wrap, kitchen roll, velcro
• Ramp/Slide

Instructions

• Decide on two markers on your ramp which you will time the distance to travel between.
• Place the first egg at the top marker and let the egg roll down the ramp, recording the time taken to reach the second marker.
• Repeat 3 times.
• Wrap bubble wrap around your egg and repeat steps 2 and 3
• Wrap kitchen roll around your egg and repeat steps 2 and 3
• Calculate the average speed for each egg and design a table to show your results.

Can you think of any more materials to try?

download my results table to record your results.

Things to think about

Use the same egg for each condition as different eggs might be different weights.

What do you think slows down or speeds up the egg? Does friction play a part?

Did any of the eggs break? Which material protected the egg the best?

Could you improve the experiment with a longer ramp?

Results

We found  the egg wrapped in bubble wrap was the slowest, but also the most protected, it was the only egg to remain completely in tact.

The time differences between the eggs are very small, and possibly more down to our inaccurate timing than anything else. The lovely Rebecca at Here Come the Girls suggested rolling the eggs down different surfaces which might have worked better.

 For even more fun with eggs, try one of these great egg experiments.

This post is part of the A-Z STEM Series. Every day during the month of January we will be bringing you exciting, science, technology, engineering, and math activities to do with your kids! By the end of the month you’ll have over 50 STEM activities to keep your kids busy learning. How fab is that?