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Can you cook an egg as fast as electricity using the sun’s energy and homemade scraps?

8-6939

8th grade

Nativity Catholic School

2024 San Mateo County Office of Education STEM Fair

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Abstract

The purpose of the project is to see an egg would be cooked as fast as electricity using the sun and homemade scraps. This was a challenging project because it was necessary to come up with a design to cook the egg. I chose to do this project because I was learning how expensive electricity was so costly. I believe we can use the sun because it is essentially free. My original hypothesis was I believe I can cook an egg as fast as electricity using the sun and materials such as black tape. This hypothesis was proven wrong as I finished the experiment with multiple results. I was able to create an invention that would cook an egg with the sun. I just needed the sun, an open spot and lots of needed attention. I succeeded in cooking the egg but it wasn’t as fast as electricity and took much longer. I do admit it is a stretch to believe a homemade invention can ever be faster than electricity, but the experiment was surprising and fun which made it all the better in the end.

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Purpose Statement

I am going to prove whether you can cook an egg as fast as electricity with just the sun and homemade scraps. Given there are people in the world that may not be able to afford electricity or where it is not available, this is a great way to see if we are able cook using the sun’s energy and home materials. If this is possible, it opens the door to many other types of food that can be made without electricity using just the sun. We’d also save alot of money without having to pay for electricity. The possibilities are unlimited.

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Hypothesis

I can cook an egg as fast as electricity using the sun and materials such as black tape, that attracts heat more than other products causing it to act as sort of a heat producer.

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Experimental

Materials

  • Egg (3)
  • Plastic bag
  • Roll of black tape
  • Cardboard box (2)
  • Insulation foam
  • Plastic wrap
  • Notebook and pencil
  • Clock

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Experimental Procedures

Creating the Box

  • Have a cardboard box prepared
  • Place Insulation foam inside the box, around the insides
  • Begin to use your black tape and cover the insides with it as it will end up attracting heat
  • Place Wrap on top of box to prevent heat from escaping

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Experimental Procedures

Egg Experiment

  • Crack your egg and place into small plastic bag
  • Lay egg in bag inside your box
  • Find an open sunny spot which can give the box maximum exposure from the sun
  • Let it sit at the hottest time of the day (around 1pm or 3pm)
  • Check on the egg lots to see when cooked
  • Repeat for multiple results to ensure accuracy

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Experimental Results

The egg ended up cooking within an hour. When attempted multiple times on different days but the same time, the egg was still cooking. The black tape ended up attracting heat and the plastic wrap contained it which helped cook the egg enough to be edible.

It was important to test this numerous times as the temperature varied by a few degrees over multiple days.

On the right you will see the experiment itself

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Analysis of Experimental

Results

The results of this project really surprised me. It might have not been as fast as electricity but I will say I am surprised that the egg had been cooked even though temperature wasn’t scorching hot and was somewhat mild, just your everyday bay area weather. All materials in the project were essential and proved they were all quite important in cooking. There might have been other ways to cook faster than simply not using electricity but I enjoyed seeing the outcome because it was unexpected. It proved that there are many other ways that an egg can be cooked if time permitted.

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Conclusions

The experiment went well although the egg was not cooked quite as fast, it was still fast enough for me to be surprised and to learn that an egg can cook without electricity. My hypothesis wasn’t completely correct nor completely wrong therefore I think it was a success. Moving forward I believe that if I had the chance to have more experiments, measured in different temperatures, I would produce most accurate results. Being able to cook an egg faster than I just did would be possible, but we could also find more materials to create a better invention that can harness power from the sun so the egg can cook.

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Acknowledgements

My father helped research and invent the project so we could experiment and find these results. We viewed the slides over and came together to make final fixes before completion.

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Bibliography and Sources