Naked Eggs Assignment - Biology Lab

1 Naked Eggs Assignment 1. Describe the reaction that removed the shell from the eggs. Includ e the chemical equation. Explain why you had to ad d more vinegar. Eggshells consist of calcium carbonate CaCO3. Calcium carbonate is a base. Vinegar contains acetic acid C2H4O2 that is - of course - an acid. The reaction between egg shells and vinegar prod uces calcium acetate Ca(C2H3CO2)2, water, and carbon d ioxid e that can be seen as bubbles on the egg that appear soon after the egg is put into the vinegar. Calcium acetate is soluble so it will d issolve. What is left is the egg's plasma membrane. CaCO3 + 2C2H4O2 --> Ca(C2H3O2)2 + H2O + CO2 (The source for the chemical part of this question is my knowledge. I took chemistry before, in college in Russia where I am originally from). I had to ad d more vinegar because the water released in this reaction was absorbed by the egg through the process of osmosis that is the d iffusion of water across a membrane (Martini, Frederic H., and Edwin F. Bartholomew. Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology. 5th ed. Benjamin Cummings, 2010. p. 66. Print). 2. Explain why the