Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to break a superstition where a thread is found inside the eggshell. I think it should be accomplished using bleep what a weasel does to an egg... but I can't seem to break the superstition... I know there has to be some logical explanation.

The incident was this... Some self-styled saint came to a friends' house. After offering some prayers, an egg was broken and guess what, instead of messing up the place around, only a single strand of thread was found inside that egg!! That was then tied on the friends' wrists as a good luck charm!! The saint pocketed a neat Rs. 5K for the same and said that good luck would come to the family soon!!

Please help. Either give me some pointers to how this can be accomplished, or else just tell me... Is it possible to break an egg shell without it being evident... or visible on the surface???

Regards,
Tarun

Tarun,

First, I split your post off into a different topic so that the experts can better help you.

I'm not quite sure I understand what you're asking, but I suggest you google 'sleight of hand' tricks. You could easily show someone a real egg (to show them a perfect eggshell) and then replace it with an already-broken egg with thread inside just before you smash it. You are right in that you could also blow out the contents of an egg and then feed a thread into it, although this would probably take some time. You could then just dab some white paint on the places where you had broken the eggshell and no one would notice.

Are you trying to make a science fair project out of this?

Hi Tarun,

This is an unusual and unique idea for a science fair project, but I think it could make an excellent chemistry/engineering project. Egg shells are composed primarily of calcium carbonate with a little protein and a few other minor elements added. Chalk and limestone are also composed of calcium carbonate. The challenge of this experiment would be to find a way to break the eggshell and then reassemble it with the same appearance and structure of an intact egg shell. You would need to do background research on the structure of egg shells, and then design experiments to recreate the appearance of egg shell.

Here is an abstract of an article on the study of the composition and structure of egg shells:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/a7563367j758235n/

And, here is a recipe for making chalk from egg shells.

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/6 ... 8586.shtml

Please let us know if you have any other questions on the scientific principles of this project.

Donna Hardy