Let’s start with the bubbles you saw forming on the shell. The bubbles are carbon dioxide. Vinegar is an acid called acetic acid, and white vinegar from the grocery store is usually about 4% acetic acid and 96% water. Eggshells are made up of calcium carbonate. The acetic acid in the vinegar reacts with the calcium carbonate in the eggshell to make calcium acetate plus water and carbon dioxide bubbles that you see on the surface of the shell.
The chemical reaction looks like this . . .
The egg looks translucent when you shine a flashlight through it because the hard outside shell is gone. The only part that remains is the thin membrane called a semipermeable membrane.
You might have noticed that the egg got a little bigger after soaking in the vinegar. Here’s what happened…Some of the water in the vinegar solution (remember that household vinegar is 96% water) traveled through the egg’s membrane in an effort to equalize the concentration of water on both sides of the membrane. This flow of water through a semipermeable membrane is called osmosis.
The chemical reaction looks like this . . .
The egg looks translucent when you shine a flashlight through it because the hard outside shell is gone. The only part that remains is the thin membrane called a semipermeable membrane.
You might have noticed that the egg got a little bigger after soaking in the vinegar. Here’s what happened…Some of the water in the vinegar solution (remember that household vinegar is 96% water) traveled through the egg’s membrane in an effort to equalize the concentration of water on both sides of the membrane. This flow of water through a semipermeable membrane is called osmosis.
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