How To Make An Egg Float In Water

Have you ever tried putting an egg in a glass full of ordinary drinking water?

What happened? Did it float?

We are pretty sure it sank to the bottom.

But what would happen if you added some salt to the mix?

The results are very interesting and can teach you some fun facts about density!

What you need:

One egg (or more!)
Water
Salt
A tall drinking glass or jar

How to do it:

Pour regular drinking water into a glass until it is about half full.
Stir in lots of salt (about 6 tablespoons).
Carefully pour in more plain water until the glass is nearly full (be careful to not disturb or mix the salty water with the plain water).
Gently lower the egg into the water and watch what happens.

Why it works:

The salt water is more dense than ordinary tap water…and the denser the liquid the easier it is for an object to float in it. So when you lower the egg into the liquid it drops through the normal tap water until it reaches the salty water. At that point, due to the extra salt in the water, it is dense enough for the egg to float. If you were careful when you added the regular water to the salt water they will not have mixed, making the egg to seem like it’s floating in the middle of the glass!

For some extra fun:

Add some food coloring to the different types of water to make your project a bit more flashy! Use one color for the regular tap water and one color for the salt water. It makes it easier to see the two layers and watch how their densities effect their placement in the glass.
Try the project over a few more times but use a different amount of salt in your salty water solution for each experiment. Write down the results to see what the optimal amount of salt to water is. You could use different color markers for each version of the experiment to help make it easier to keep track of your findings.

For more info watch our How To Make An Egg Float In Water video:

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more fun science videos!