Myth: Bad eggs will float / good eggs will sink

[Kirsyson]

My 6 year old son's favorite show is myth busters. So, we decided to to test a myth of our own. Do bad eggs sink in water? Well, we can tell you that fresh eggs float and that an egg left on the counter for over 4 weeks finally started to bob in the water a little. We don't have an old enough egg to see if it really floats yet. As we all know, fresh eggs last so much longer anyway when you don't wash them and all of that.

So happy to be joining this forum. You guys are really funny and in such a wholesome way!

 

[Break an Egg]

Fresh eggs sink in the water, bad eggs will float, the reason is the older an egg, the larger the air cell gets. The more air in the egg, the more it will float.

I hope this helps some and

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Love that show Mythbusters!




Old eggs float - has to do with the larger air cell in the egg. My fresh eggs, smallest air cell, lay on their side on the bottom of the bowl of water.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
Frsh eggs sink. Medium old eggs bob under the surface. Old eggs float due to the bigger air cell at the big end.

If you used store eggs as your "fresh" eggs in the test, it's an invalid test.

Sounds like it was fun though, try it again!

 

[Bantimna]

Welcome, I also love Mythbusters. Please try again a post your results.

 

[my1stchicks]

 

[yotetrapper]

Not ALL bad eggs float! I had some eggs that had been chillin my fridge for god knows how long, so I float tested them. A couple floated, and I tossed them. Several stood up, and I tossed them too. The rest were laying flat on the bottom. I started cracking and about puked when one of the eggs was pure green and the stench was awful! It had NOT floated....

 

[NYREDS]

The air cell is a commonly used phrase used to describe the void or air space if you'd prefer in an egg. As an egg ages it loses moisture & the air cell or space enlarges.

The air cell is a commonly used phrase used to describe the void or air space if you'd prefer in an egg. As an egg ages it loses moisture & the air cell or space enlarges. I don't think that anyone using the phrase air cell believes it to be a cell as in the sense of a microscopic biological unit. I believe your attempt to illustrate your erudition showed only your own limitations.

Oh, to the OP, fresh eggs most certainly do not float.

 

[Knetiknrga]

Danielgdl, please see both #2 and #4 below for definitions of the word cell in this application. (From freedictionary.com). I also urge you to google images using the search ' internal structure of eggs'. You will see that the air pocket in the large end of the egg is indeed called the air cell, no matter which illustration (among hundreds) you look at.

cell1
n
1. a small simple room, as in a prison, convent, monastery, or asylum; cubicle
2. any small compartment, the cells of a honeycomb
3. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Biology) Biology the basic structural and functional unit of living organisms. It consists of a nucleus, containing the genetic material, surrounded by the cytoplasm in which are mitochondria, lysosomes, ribosomes, and other organelles. All cells are bounded by a cell membrane; plant cells have an outer cell wall in addition
4. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Biology) Biology any small cavity or area, such as the cavity containing pollen in an anther
5. (Physics / General Physics) a device for converting chemical energy into electrical energy, usually consisting of a container with two electrodes immersed in an electrolyte See also primary cell, secondary cell, dry cell, wet cell, fuel cell
6. (Chemistry) short for electrolytic cell
7. (Christianity / Ecclesiastical Terms) a small religious house dependent upon a larger one
8. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a small group of persons operating as a nucleus of a larger political, religious, or other organization Communist cell
9. (Mathematics) Maths a small unit of volume in a mathematical coordinate system
10. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Zoology) Zoology one of the areas on an insect wing bounded by veins
11. (Communication Arts / Broadcasting) the geographical area served by an individual transmitter in a cellular radio network
[from Medieval Latin cella monk's cell, from Latin: room, storeroom; related to Latin cēlāre to hide]
cell-like adj

 

[Backyarder]

Our chickens have been hiding their eggs in the blackberry brambles and my husband finally got around to clipping them back. We found 14 eggs and did the float test. None of them floated and in fact most of them lay on their side. So we thought they would be good. WRONG! We just went through a 100F heat wave for multiple days and those eggs sat out there. They were slightly dingy and not pure color.

When I cracked one open, it broke apart immediately, yolk broken completely, watery whites. The second one had part stuck to the side of the egg wall and was turning green. My husband broke one and the inside was turning black.

The float test did NOT work for us.