how to make a bouncy egg science experiment for the science fair

Next time your child needs fun science fair ideas, try this bouncy egg science experiment. These vinegar eggs really do bounce, but they will break, so be gentle!

Every year science fair time rolls around and we spend hours searching online for fun science fair ideas. With so many great ideas out there it can be hard to pick the perfect experiment. I do my best to help my kids find projects that they have a genuine interest in, even if it may be more complicated than I would prefer! I think this bouncy egg science experiment is one of the neatest ones we’ve found!

When I was a kid, I wasn’t all that interested in science. I was definitely more of a quiet, artsy-crafty kid. I procrastinated with picking a topic as long as I could. When the science fair was looming on the horizon, my mom sat me down with a few simple experiments. She explained each of them to me and had me pick the one that I was most interested in. I thought making celery turn blue with food dye was a pretty nifty experiment…until I walked into the science fair.

Right there in the middle of the gymnasium was an incubator with baby chicks hatching out of eggs. I was gobsmacked! My little mind could not comprehend for how amazingness of it! Eggs? With baby chicks popping out? I was ready to explode with excitement. I quickly put my blue celery on a table and ran over to the incubator. I am pretty sure I stood there and watched those chicks until my parents dragged me home. (I was secretly praying they would let me keep one!)

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Finding this bouncing vinegar egg experiment gave me a similar “how cool is that” feeling. Seriously, a bouncing egg? This was definitely one of the easiest, simplest, fun science fair ideas that I had seen in awhile! The acetic acid in vinegar breaks down the calcium carbonate shell. The membrane surrounding the egg becomes rubbery from the exposure to the vinegar. The inside of the egg remains raw so you can see the yolk moving around. Pretty neat!

Please note – your vinegar egg can still break so gentle bouncing is recommended!