Super Domes

Super Domes


- 4 eggs
- Tape
- Pen
- Sharp scissors
- Something to use a flat base surface – like a tray
- Heavy books
- An oldie to help you out!


1. Carefully tap the pointy end of your egg to break the shell.The rest of the egg needs to stay in one piece!Pour out the contents of the egg – save it for breakfast!
2. Stick tape around the middle of the egg.Draw a line around the widest part and ask your oldie to score it with some scissors.
3. Start carefully breaking off bits of shell from the pointy bit to the line, and use the scissors to carefully snip around the line.Be careful – if the shell breaks past the line you’ll have to start over!Do this with the other three eggs as well.
4. Lay out your eggs in a rectangle shape.Carefully lay your tray on top of the eggs as a flat base.Then start stacking – see how many books you can stack onto the eggs before they break – you might be surprised!

When you’re stacking your books on your eggs, lay them down as carefully and evenly as possible so the weight is distributed evenly over the four eggs.
Stand well back in between each weight you add because the eggs may give way suddenly!
Don’t carry this experiment out near breakables!

The Extreme Science behind this:

Eggshells are very thin and fragile, but eggs are surprisingly strong – this is because of their dome structure!A dome is like a set of arches arranged in a circle – which is a very strong structure because its shape evenly spreads any weight that is placed upon it.The weight that you put on the eggshells is balanced by the dome shape of the eggs which distributes the weight along the curve of the eggshell.

This is why if you squeeze an egg in the middle, it can crack, but if you squeeze it end to end, it stays strong!

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