"Egg in a flask" experiment

How to put an egg into a narrow-necked bottle

To amuse your fam­i­ly and friends, show them this en­ter­tain­ing ex­per­i­ment!

Reagents and equip­ment:

  • a boiled egg;
  • a con­ic flask;
  • match­es.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Throw a few burn­ing match­es into a dry con­ic flask. When the match­es go out, block the open­ing of the flask with an egg. The egg starts to be pulled into the bot­tle.

Pro­cess­es de­scrip­tion

From the point of view of chem­istry, the com­bus­tion of match­es is the ox­i­diz­ing re­ac­tion of cel­lu­lose by the oxy­gen in the air to car­bon diox­ide and wa­ter. In any com­bus­tion re­ac­tion, heat is re­leased into the sur­round­ing en­vi­ron­ment.

This warms up the air, which ex­pands and leaves the flask. If you block the open­ing with an egg, a dif­fer­ence of pres­sures is cre­at­ed in the bot­tle, as the air starts to cool and com­press, and the egg is pulled into the bot­tle.

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Ob­serve safe­ty rules when work­ing with fire.

Warn­ing! Sub­stances of this ex­per­i­ment are tox­ic and high­ly dan­ger­ous for your health. Do not try this at home. Only un­der pro­fes­sion­al su­per­vi­sion.

Try it