Spun Eggs Experiment

This is a great hands on experiment for kids, specially with easter right around the corner. See if your friends can tell the difference between a raw and hard boiled egg without breaking them?

The hard-boiled egg spins smoothly and quickly. It will even stand up straight, this is because the egg inside is solid. The raw egg wobbles as it spins because the egg inside is liquid. As the raw egg is spinning, the liquid inside sloshes around, and affects the egg’s spin. Why does this affect the egg’s spin? It’s because of Newton’s First Law of Motion.

This law states: “An object in motion remains in motion, unless acted upon by an external force.” Put more simply, Newton’s First Law says, “if something is moving, it’ll keep moving unless something else stops it”.
Here we have our example of Newton’s First Law of Motion, the raw egg.

Try this: give the raw egg a good spin. As it spins, stop the egg by quickly putting your finger on the top of the egg. Then just as quickly, remove your finger. This action should be fast, perhaps half a second at most. When you remove your finger, you’ll see the stopped egg begin spinning again!

The egg keeps spinning after we stop it because the liquid egg inside remains in motion. The shell of the egg was stopped by our finger, but the inside keeps on going.
Within seconds, the raw egg will stop spinning. This is because of many factors: The friction between the table and egg will slow the egg and eventually stop it.

Though the liquid inside the egg keeps moving, it too slows down and stops because the hard shell contains the liquid and eventually prevents it from moving.