Four Eggxperiments

I've recently learned about Pinterest and set up a Desert Survivor Pinterest account that has lots of things from this blog and other blogs. One of the things I like about it is that I can get ideas for healthy recipes and kids' science experiments easily. I found one post that had 10 egg experiments and clicked through to the website. I also looked around at some other websites to get additional ideas. In the end, we decided to do four egg experiments (Desert Boy called them eggxperiments) yesterday. This is a long post. But it's fun!

Eggxperiment #1: Stand on eggs
Hypothesis: Standing on raw eggs will crush them and make a huge mess
(Desert Boy was even getting cleaning supplies ready before we began. He totally didn't think this would work.) Idea from this website.


Eggs are strong, but are they that strong? We decided to find out.

Desert Boy thought I was crazy when I told him to step on the eggs.

Step 1: Get raw eggs. I thought we had a lot, but it turned out we only had part of a carton. Oh well, my kids have little feet.

Step 2: Try to make sure all the eggs are about the same height.

Step 3: Have your test subject put a foot lightly on the eggs.

Step 4: Transfer weight to the eggs. See what happens!


The eggs didn't break.
Desert Girl wanted to give it a try too.

The eggs didn't break under her weight either. (Do you like her backpack? She likes to pretend she's in school.)

So if you have enough eggs, the eggshells are strong enough to support your weight (at least if you weigh 40 pounds or less). But what about just one egg? Is it strong enough to support 40 pounds? We decided to give it a try.

We were all a little nervous about this one.

But, as it turned out, the egg didn't break! We may have to try this again next year to see if a few extra pounds make a difference. For now, though, we had to reject our hypothesis. Standing on eggs did not break them and make a huge mess (for which I was quite grateful).

So why didn't the eggs break? Eggs are natural examples of arches, one of the strongest forms in nature and in modern architecture. The arch distributes the compressive forces, which means that the weight is spread out and not focused in one spot.


Eggxperiment #2: Break a raw egg with your hands
Hypothesis: With bare hands, it will be possible to squeeze an egg so hard that it breaks.

Kids like making messes, so these eggxperiments trying to make messes are extra fun. For this one, we wanted to break an egg with our hands.

Step 1: Put a raw egg into a Ziploc bag (or put cling wrap all around it). Make sure the egg doesn't have any cracks in it.

Step 2: Squeeze the egg as hard as you can.

Desert Boy is trying really, really hard to break it!

It's still not breaking!

Desert Girl wanted a try, too. She couldn't break it either.

So how about some teamwork?

Even with double the power, they still couldn't break the egg.

Is the Ziploc bag creating some magical field? Hmm, we can take it off and try breaking it over the sink.

Once again, we couldn't get the egg to break. So we'll reject this hypothesis too. With bare hands, we weren't able to squeeze an egg so hard that it would break.

Again, the arch shape of the eggshell is providing strength. A chicken eggshell is made of 95-97% calcium carbonate supported by a protein matrix. The older the hen laying the egg, the weaker the eggshell. But it's still stronger than you might think!


Eggxperiment #3: Make an egg float
Hypothesis: If we add enough salt to water, it will make an egg float.

One way to have a floating egg is to have an old egg. If an egg is older than 4 weeks old, it is more likely to float because the eggshell is somewhat porous and the water vapor and gases slowly leave the eggshell.

But how can you make a fresh egg float? It's all about density. Is it easier to float in fresh water or the ocean (or Great Salt Lake)? Desert Boy remembered that it was easier to float in the ocean, because it has salt in it. So we wanted to make the egg float by adding salt.

Step 1: Put a raw egg in a bowl of water. Watch it sink to the bottom.

Step 2: Start adding salt.

Step 3: Stir in salt. (I realized after we started that if I had used warm water, the salt would dissolve faster).

Step 4: Keep adding salt (we had to add about 6 Tablespoons).

Finally, the egg floats! We didn't have to reject this hypothesis. Our experiment turned out how we expected.

If I had to do this again, I would use a narrower, taller glass container and pour the salt in faster (maybe a quarter cup at the beginning to get things going), plus use warm water.


Eggxperiment #4: Squeeze a hard-boiled egg into a bottle without pushing it with our hands
Hypothesis: No way! We will not be able to fit an egg into a bottle with a mouth that is narrower than the egg

We saved the best eggxperiment for last. Could we get a hard-boiled egg into a bottle that had a neck narrower than the egg? Desert Boy doesn't think so.

Step 1: Get a bottle with a neck just slightly narrower than your hardboiled egg. (We used a plastic bottle, but all other instructions I've seen say a glass bottle).

Step 2: Put a little oil around the rim of the bottle.

Step 3: Light two matches and put into bottle.

Step 4: Put a peeled hard-boiled egg immediately on top of bottle.

We made a video of our first attempt:

It didn't work! I feel it's important to share that we don't always have success with our science experiments. Should you give up if it doesn't work? No way! We thought about what happened--the matches went out. Maybe we needed something that burned better. So we revised step 3.

New Step 3: Light a strip of paper on fire and place in bottle.

Here are our results:

Hurray, it worked! In fact, it was quite impressive how fast that hard boiled egg was sucked into the bottle. Some of the egg white even sheared off. (Did you see that in the video? If not, watch again, it's cool.)

So why does this happen? Air pressure is the short answer (and the one Desert Boy remembers). The longer version is that when you heat a gas, it expands. The air in the bottle is expanding with the lit paper and matches, and some of that escapes past the egg sitting on the top. Once the fire is out, the air cools. Because some of the air molecules had escaped the bottle, there are fewer to occupy the same space, creating a small vacuum. The outside air pressure is stronger, and it pushes that egg into the bottle.

I'm guessing with just the two matches we didn't have enough air molecules leave the bottle, thus the vacuum wasn't strong enough to pull the egg into the bottle. With the more flammable paper, more air was displaced. Did you notice that the egg didn't start moving till the flame was out? (I didn't at first, I had to watch it again!)

So we rejected our hypothesis. We really could get an egg into a bottle with a narrower neck.

Well, that was so much fun that we had to try a little twist on it, which I found in Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes: Unforgettable Experiments That Make Science Fun (Steve Spangler Science). This time we put two birthday candles on the top of an egg, lit them, and put the bottle on top. We tried to suck the egg up into the bottle.

Alas, that didn't work. We tried three times. The egg went partially into the bottle, but not all the way. I'm not sure if it's because this hard-boiled egg was slightly rounder, or if it's because we live over a mile above sea level and the air molecules aren't as dense here, or if it's something else entirely. We'll be trying this again another day.

So what do you do with the hardboiled egg? Make a bunny! (See this pictorial to learn how.)

Now we have a connection between bunnies and eggs.

Have fun with your eggs! (Coming soon--how to dye your hard-boiled eggs with homemade, non-toxic dyes).

Have any other eggxperiments we should try?

New Food: Kale

Last year I tried kale for the first time. I didn't like it. 

But I decided to give it a second chance. 

Turns out that kale was an extremely popular veggie until the Middle Ages in Europe. Kale was easy to grow and could withstand cold temperatures, making it quite useful. It's one of the many varieties of cabbage (Brassica oleracea). Other varieties you might be familiar with include broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens,  and brussel sprouts.

I decided I would try kale the same way as I had the first time: kale chips. I found an easy recipe on Allrecipes.com. Basically you take one bunch of clean kale, cut (or rip) it into small pieces and put on a baking sheet, drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle a teaspoon of salt, then bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. This is what you get:

 Kale chips sort of melt in your mouth. They don't have much flavor. Although the recipe said to remove the stems, I liked them quite a bit. And the leafy parts were okay this time. Maybe I'm warming up to kale. I want to like it. Kale is high in lots of good things: beta-carotenes, vitamin K, vitamin C, calcium, sulforaphanes (cancer-fighting chemical), and more.

I would eat it, but I still had the big question: would my kids eat it? Time for the test.

 I gave Desert Girl a little kale chip. I try to introduce my kids to a new food at least every couple of weeks, so they are used to getting new foods. That doesn't mean they're thrilled to try them, but usually they will with a little cajoling.


She's trying to decide if she likes it or not.

 Hmm..not great, mom, but maybe okay.

I call that a win. I have to admit that the kids liked the other vegetable I put on the same baking sheet with the kale quite a bit better:

Baked Cauliflower! Who would have guessed! It was also easy to cook: slice clean cauliflower into thin slices, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with pepper. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Neither cauliflower nor kale will probably ever be my favorite vegetable, but it's nice to know that we'll eat them once in awhile. Besides, kale is eaten worldwide: in addition to still being a favorite in parts of Europe (Germany holds kale festivals and crowns kale kings and queens), it is eaten in eastern and southeastern Africa and drunk as a kale juice in Japan.

Have you tried kale? If you have, what did you think?

Top 25 Outdoorsy Moms Blog - 2013

Thanks to a link on Facebook, I went to a website where I saw a little badge that said "Top 25 Outdoorsy Moms Blog 2012." That intrigued me. I had never put a label of Outdoorsy Mom to myself, but I guess that's what I am. I looked at the list and found some fascinating blogs.

Then I found that the competition for 2013 is open. The contest is simple: whoever has the most votes wins. You can vote once a day until March 27. So if you enjoy reading Desert Survivor and think it should be one of the Top 25 Outdoorsy Moms Blogs for 2013, click on the link below, scroll way down the list (I was the last one on it earlier yesterday), and give a quick click to vote. That's all, it's quick and easy.

Thank you!

p.s. I've put the link on the sidebar so you'll see it each time you visit. Remember, you can vote once a day till March 27!

Wild Goose Chase 2013

It was late February, which meant it was time to head to the Wild Goose Chase in Delta, Utah. The 5K/10K race is held as part of the Snow Goose Festival, which celebrates the migrating snow geese. The snow geese really like to eat in the fields around Delta and then spend some time hanging out on local water bodies. 

I've done the race many times, including in 2011, when we drove through a blizzard to get there, and in 2012, when conditions were much better. For 2013, the forecast was 50% chance of snow. I groaned. It wasn't pleasant running in 2011. But we needed groceries and had other errands, so we decided to go for the race, along with seven other runners from our valley and a few spectators.

The drive there was easy, no snow. But we could see the storm coming. When we got there we saw big chunks of ice on the shoreline. Where did they come from?

From the large excavator, making a hole in the lake so that the participants of the Dunk-Dunk-Goose could go get wet. How crazy! We saw snow geese in fields on the way to the race, but none were on the thick ice.

Desert Boy and Desert Girl tested the water and decided it was cold. Brrr! The wind started getting stronger, and we bundled them up in snow pants and coats. Then our friend Beth watched them while my husband and I lined up to run. (Thanks, Beth!)

We were glad when it was time to go, because that meant we could generate more heat. I don't think I've ever run with more layers on than I did in that race. I had on a wool long-sleeve performance shirt, the Wild Goose technical race shirt from two years ago, and a windbreaker. I was still cold! The other runners from our valley took off fast (including my husband!) and I settled in to a pace I could maintain for 10k (6 miles). But then the wind really started blowing. And it started snowing. And then about mile One I fell on an icy patch and banged my knee really hard and scraped my palm (I had taken my gloves off for a little bit because I had started to generate some heat). I stuffed my hand into my glove so I wouldn't look at the blood. Another runner helped me get up, and I limped forward, assessing the damage. My knee did not feel good. I wasn't sure if I could finish the 5k race, much less the 10k. Slowly the blood circulated, and I started a ponderous jog. Gradually I increased my speed to my regular measured speed. Of course, with the gusts of wind, it was not easy going. I tried different strategies of charging into the wind or hunkering low. Nothing seemed to work well. We were running along the reservoir, so there weren't any places to go hide out in. If this race had been in a city, I might have dashed into a store and not reemerged.

For the third mile, an 11-year old girl played leapfrog with me. She would run fast and pass me, then walk and I would pass her, then she ran fast and passed me, and so on. Finally she started just running at the same pace as me and I congratulated her on running so well. She said this was her first 5k ever, and she went on to win her age group. I still had another 5k to go. And it was not fun. Alas, I did finish. My time was two minutes slower than I wanted, but considering the weather conditions, I didn't feel bad about it.

It turned out I came in second in my age group and was the fourth woman overall in the 10k. Yippee! The other runners from our valley did even better, including a 1st and 3rd finish overall in the 10k and a 1st and 2nd finish overall in the 5k.

My husband did great! His only training was a short run the week before. Nevertheless, he had an impressive time. At the finishing line, the wind had blown all the plastic off the warming pavilion and the heat lamp wasn't working. Once I finished, the sweat I had worked up now chilled me, and I felt really cold. But we couldn't leave, Desert Boy was signed up to run the 1/4 mile race. He joined a few other kids.

He was wearing snow pants and his winter coat. I was getting mildly hypothermic, so I gave the camera to my husband and went with Beth and Desert Girl to the van to try and warm up.

Desert Boy started the race with a smile. Go, Desert Boy!


Unfortunately he was running right into the wind and quickly got chilled. He finished, but was near the end. He was crying because he was so cold. Poor kid! Next year if the forecast is for snow, we're not going. Sorry, Wild Goose Chase, as much fun as you are, you're just not enough fun in bad weather.

Not everyone would agree with me. While sitting in the car with the heater on, I watched the crazies run into the reservoir, around those blocks of ice. Brrr! I got cold all over again just watching. They even paid to do that. Are they nuts or what?

Desert Girl watched too, and told me she wanted to get in the icy water. I told her no way, later that day we'd go swimming in the warm indoor swimming pool. She told me again a couple times she wanted to get in the icy water. When she's 18, she can go right ahead and do that!

We saw a few snow geese flying overhead as we drove away. They were still present despite the weather. I guess they're getting ready to face the Canadian weather as they continue their migration northward. They are amazing birds, and I guess I should remember that running in a little bad weather isn't much compared to the feat they're accomplishing as they migrate 3,000 miles through all types of weather.

Ski Lessons

Desert Girl went for her first ski lesson last weekend, at Brian Head Resort near Parowan, Utah. We were trying to hide from her so she wouldn't spot us and want to come over to us. She and an older girl were with an instructor. They were on an itsy bitsy hill. The instructor didn't even bother to wear skis.

The instructor report was that she did everything well until she got to the sliding part. Yep. That sliding just didn't go so well. I guess it will be awhile before she's a ski aficionado. Desert Girl told me that she didn't want to go back to ski school because the sliding was scary. I asked her if she would go back if her friend Isaac went with her. That generated an immediate yes!

Desert Boy did much better. He took his second lesson (his first was last year). This time he learned how to stop (sometimes) and to turn. After his lesson, he was thrilled to take us on a tour of the dinosaur trail, a narrower trail with dinosaur cutouts (smart thinking, Brian Head!). Then he wanted to go to the terrain park. He did some mini-jumps, but not the mountain high one (hey, I didn't do that one either!  it was about a foot high).

The weather was good till the last hour, when the light went flat and it started snowing. My husband and I spent most of our time over on the harder mountain. I definitely found some runs that were a little too challenging for me. I also had a great time learning to go through the trees. I've been skiing a few times this winter, but am taking baby steps trying to improve--I really don't want to get hurt! My husband makes it all look easy. 

Here's a quick video of Desert Boy getting off the ski lift, which I think can sometimes be the most challenging part: 

Then came Desert Girl's favorite part of the day: a chocolatey snack.

Taking Gardening to a New Level--a Grow Light and Mini Greenhouse

At the end of February we started some seeds indoors. This year I'm determined to do a better job with gardening, as I want to have more fresh food in our house, locally grown. My husband is in total support. He doesn't care so much about the locally grown part--or even the fresh food part, but he wants us to be self-sufficient and ready for survival mode should we ever need to be. (Hopefully if we need to be, we will have quite a bit more time to prepare, because we are not ready now!)

By starting seeds inside so early, I knew that we would need some help from light, as the sun just isn't strong enough now to provide enough light via windows, and it's still too cold to put the plants out for the day. So I did some searching and found a wonderful design to make your own grow light system with PVC pipe from Emily at My Square Foot Garden. She had gotten all her supplies from Home Depot for $48. We were heading to town and decided to go for it. 

Her directions (and prices) were spot on, and it didn't take long at all to assemble our own grow light.

 Our seedlings immediately showed their appreciation by not bending towards the light. If you're wondering if the light is crooked, it is. We had some seedlings much taller than others, so we thought by hanging the light crooked, we would be able to make them all happy.

 The seedlings are doing great. Desert Boy has been keeping track of when the seedlings appear. It's been interesting to see how fast different vegetables germinate.

Seeing the change from the nearly bare tray to the now much greener one makes this project worth it. (It will be even more worth it once we get to eat the vegetables that we planted!)

Now that we are in March with 60 degree days in the forecast, it's time to plant some of the early crops: peas, beets, carrots, and lettuce. We're a little concerned that it might be a tiny bit early, so we decided to make a mini greenhouse for our early crops. We gathered some old windows and old hay bales. We came up with a solution. It's not pretty, but hopefully it will work!

 Our next big task for the garden is figuring out a better irrigation system. Those of you who don't have to water your garden--you are so lucky!