You might have seen or even done the classic egg in a bottle trick, but have you ever tried it with this fun upside-down twist!? This will quickly become a household favorite as you watch an egg defy gravity and get pulled up into a bottle with this Egg in an Upside-Down Bottle Trick!
Find more Science Experiments With Matches here!
I can’t think of a much more exciting way to learn about the power of air pressure than watching a hard-boiled egg get pulled upwards into an upside-down bottle!
Egg in an Upside-Down Bottle Trick
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Supplies Needed:
- Narrow Neck Glass Bottle or Vase
- Hard-Boiled Egg
- Matches or Lighter
- Bowl
- A Birthday Candle
Upside-Down Egg in a Bottle Trick
- Peel the shell off a hard-boiled egg.
- Try pushing the egg into the narrow neck bottle and prove it is too big to fit.
- Stick a birthday candle into one end of the egg.
- Light the candle with an adult’s help and supervision.
- Raise the candle and egg up and into the opening of the upside-down bottle.
- Watch as the egg gets pulled into the bottle!
- Get the egg back out of the bottle by blowing into the bottle and watching it come out!
Step 1: Remove The Shell From a Boiled Egg
Let’s get started with this fun experiment by peeling the shell off a hard-boiled egg. Just give the egg a good whack on the table to make a crack and start peeling the shell away with your fingers.
Do the best you can to keep the boiled egg from cracking or splitting as you pull the shell away from it. This will help it stay intact better when it is sucked into the bottle.
Step 2: Try to Fit The Egg Into a Narrow-Mouthed Bottle
Now what I like to do is put the size of the boiled egg to the test with the opening on the bottle. To do this just grab your freshly peeled egg and try to fit it inside the bottle.
As long as you are using the correct sized narrow mouthed bottle, then the diameter of the egg should be too big to fit into the bottle.
You can try plopping the egg into the bottle with each pointy and round end going in first and don’t be afraid to even apply a little pressure trying to push the egg inside.
Once you have convinced yourself and your audience that the egg will not fit into the bottle, move on to the next step.
Step 3: Put A Birthday Candle Into the End of The Egg
Choose one end of the egg and poke a small birthday candle into the end of the egg.
It is a little bit easier if you buy the birthday candles that come with holders and stick the holders into the egg, but you can also just stick the candles into the egg if you don’t have holders.
I included a link above in the supplies list for the candles I used that do include holders.
Step 4: Let An Adult Light The Candle
This step is for adults to do while the children watch and enjoy! It’s time to use matches or a lighter to light the candle that is sticking out of the egg.
Once the candle has safely been ignited and has a flame burning, continue to very carefully hold the egg and candle in your hand and move on to step 5.
Step 5: Fit The Candle Inside The Bottle Opening and Hold The Egg
With the candle burning use one hand to flip your bottle upside down and lower it towards the egg and candle in your other hand.
Gently and carefully slide the burning candle into the opening of the upside-down bottle and hold the attached egg snug against the lip of the bottle opening.
After holding the egg and candle firmly in the bottle opening for a few seconds, you will start to feel the egg lifting out of your hand and into the bottle.
Let go of the egg at this point and keep holding the bottle upside-down with your other hand.
Step 6: The Egg Will Get Pulled Into The Upside-Down Bottle
We are finally to the fun and exciting part where we get to watch the egg defy gravity and it’s own size as it gets sucked upward and into the inside of the bottle!
Watch very closely as the egg will appear to get squeezed into the bottle from an unseen force of air pressure!
This will happen very slowly as the candle is still burning inside the bottle for a few seconds, but once the candle burns out, the egg will quickly pop into the bottle!
Step 7: Remove The Egg From The Bottle
After the oohs and awes start to fade after witnessing this incredible egg in an upside-down bottle trick, why not do it again!?
But wait! Before we can do this again we need to find a way to get the egg out of the bottle in one piece!
Go ahead and keep the bottle upside down and gently shake it to see if the egg will come out.
You will quickly learn that the egg is too large to fit back through the opening of the bottle, much like how it was too large to fit through the opening to get into the bottle before.
We need to use the same force (air pressure) that got the egg into the bottle in the first place to get the egg out of the bottle now!
To do this just keep the bottle upside-down and blow some air into the bottle with your mouth. You might want to wipe the opening of the bottle with a disinfectant wipe first if this seems a little gross to you!
With your mouth sealed onto the bottle, blow into the bottle to increase the air pressure. Then release your mouth. As the increased air pressure inside tries to escape it will push the egg out of the bottle with it!
Now you can try to do your experiment over and over again with the same egg! You can even try doing it the classic way without a candle and with the bottle right-side-up in this Egg In a Bottle Experiment.
How Do You Put an Egg Into a Bottle Without Breaking It?
This egg in an upside-down bottle trick showed us how to force an egg that is too large for the bottle opening into the bottle without breaking it! This is only possible thanks to the amazing power of air pressure!
As the burning candle initially enters into the bottle it quickly heats up the air inside the bottle. The hot air expands and increases the air pressure inside the bottle.
Soon the candle burns all of the available oxygen inside the bottle and the flame goes out because fire needs oxygen to burn. When the flame goes out, the air now rapidly cools and contracts, decreasing the air pressure.
The higher pressure on the outside of the bottle now wants to move into the bottle since the pressure has dropped lower inside the bottle.
This tendency for air pressure outside the bottle to become equal to the air pressure inside the bottle is called equilibrium pressure.
With the egg blocking the way for the air to enter the bottle, the air pushes the egg inside as the air rushes in!
PIN THIS EXPERIMENT FOR LATER
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