Composition of a Shell

Purpose

To investigate the composition of a shell.


Additional information

Shells, along with eggs, snails, and other marine organisms, contain a chemical called calcium carbonate, a common substance found around the world. Common minerals and rocks where calcium carbonate exists is in chalk, limestone, marble, and travertine. It's also the active ingredient that causes hard water conditions in many households.

Seashells are the hard outer protective layer of marine organisms, animals without backbones commonly known as invertebrates. The shell is part of the body, in most cases the exoskeleton, which exists in order to protect the soft abdomens of the marine life that "wears" them. Shells are commonly found along shorelines and beaches when they are washed ashore by the tides. In most cases the shells are clean and emptied of the animal that once inhabited it.


Sponsored Links


Required materials

  • Bowl
  • Vinegar
  • Several shells of varying size, shape, and color
  • Hammer (or some other device for smashing)
  • Safety Goggles

Estimated Experiment Time

Less than 5 minutes to set-up, about 72 hours to complete.


Step-By-Step Procedure

  • 1. Place 1/2 of your shells in your bowl.
  • 2. Pour some vinegar in the bowl. Pour enough so that your shells are completely submerged in the vinegar. You may need a bigger bowl if you can't submerge all of them.
  • 3. Put the bowl in a safe place where it can remain undisturbed for at least 3 days.
  • 4. After the 3rd day is up, drain the vinegar from the bowl and place the shells from the bowl on a flat, hard surface.
  • 5. Place the shells that you had set aside from a few days earlier and place them next to the other shells (but make sure they're separated so you know which is which).
  • 6. Put on your safety goggles.
  • 7. Now, use your hammer to try to break the shells that were NOT submerged in vinegar. Note the difficulty in smashing them with the hammer.
  • 8. Next use the hammer to smash the shells that were in the vinegar. Are they much easier to break?

Note

Always wear safety goggles when smashing things, especially shells! If you hit the shells too hard they may become projectiles, inflicting injury. The best method for smashing your shells is to hit them with the hammer at a controlled rate, preferably with taps until they break down.


Observation

What would happen if you let the shells soak for a few more days? How about weeks, or even months? Can you find out about anything else that is made from calcium carbonate?


Result

Shells are made up of a mineral called calcium carbonate. The vinegars effect on this mineral is to soften it, and eventually break it down. The longer the shells soak in the vinegar, the weaker the shells become! This is why the shells that were in the vinegar break very easily.


Sponsored Links


Take a moment to visit our table of Periodic Elements page where you can get an in-depth view of all the elements, complete with the industry first side-by-side element comparisons!


Your email:
Your name:
Recipient email:
Recipient name:
Message:
 

Print this page   Bookmark this page  

Hide/View all projects Hide all projects Hide/View all projects

All Projects List

  • Accelerate Rusting
  • Acids And Bases
  • Additive Colors
  • Ant Microphotography
  • Apple Mummy
  • Balloon Rocket Car
  • Barney Banana
  • Bending Water
  • Bernoulli’s Principle
  • Blind Spot in Vision
  • Boiling Point of Water
  • Build an Electromagnet
  • Build an Inclinometer
  • Caffeine And Typing
  • Candle Race
  • Candy Molecules
  • Capillarity of Soils
  • Carbon in the Atmosphere
  • Checking vs. Savings
  • Chemical Metamorphosis
  • Clean Cleaners
  • Cleaning Oil Spills
  • Climbing Colors
  • Cloud Cover
  • CO2 & Photosynthesis
  • Collecting DNA
  • Colorful Celery
  • Coloring Matter in Food
  • Colors And Temperature
  • Composition of a Shell
  • Computer Passwords
  • Construct a Lung Model
  • Corrosiveness of Soda
  • Create a Heat Detector
  • Create Lightening
  • Cultivate Slime Molds
  • Cup of Lava
  • Dehydrated Potato
  • Desalinate Sea Water
  • Detergents and Plants
  • Dissolving in Liquids
  • Dissolving Solutes
  • Distillation of Water
  • Double Color Flower
  • Egg in a Bottle
  • Enzyme Activity
  • Eroding Away
  • Erosion Simulator
  • Evaportating Liquids
  • Expanding Soap
  • Exploding Ziploc
  • Extracting Starch
  • Fans And Body Temp
  • Fertilizer & Plants
  • Filtration of Water
  • Floating Ball Experiment
  • Floating Balloon
  • Fog Formation
  • Font and Memory
  • Food and Academics
  • Friction And Vibration
  • Fruit Battery Power
  • Full and Low Fat Foods
  • Galileo's Experiment
  • Gas To Liquid
  • Grape Juice & Cleaners
  • Gravity and Plants
  • Green Slime
  • Growing a Crystal
  • Growing Bread Mold
  • Growing Population
  • Haemoglobin Binding
  • Hard vs. Soft Water
  • Homemade Floam
  • Home-made Geodes
  • Home-Made Glue #1
  • Homemade Snowflakes
  • Home-made Stethoscope
  • Homemade Volcano
  • Homemade Windmill
  • Human Battery Power
  • Inertia of an Egg
  • Information and CD’s
  • Invisible Ink
  • Isolation of Bread Mold
  • Isolation of DNA
  • Jar Compass
  • Lemon Floaties
  • Levers And Force
  • Lift an Ice Cube
  • Light Colors and Plants
  • Long Lasting Bubbles
  • Magic Balloons
  • Magnified Light
  • Make a Compost Pile
  • Make a Fuse Model
  • Make a Parallel Circuit
  • Make An Elevator
  • Make Electric Circuits
  • Make Limestone
  • Make Objects Float
  • Make Static Electricity
  • Make your own sundial
  • Matchbox Guitar
  • Math and Gender
  • Mean, Median and Range
  • Measuring Air Pollution
  • Mentos Soda Volcano
  • Microbial Contaminants
  • Milky Plastic
  • Mini Greenhouse
  • Missing Reflection
  • Mixing With Water
  • Molls Experiment
  • Music and Plants
  • Musical Bottles
  • Nocturnal Plants
  • Ocean Life & Oil Spills
  • Ocean Temperature
  • Optical Mice
  • Oral Bacteria
  • Orange Water Volume
  • Organic vs. Inorganic
  • Osmosis
  • Oven Baked Ice Cream
  • Oxygen & Photosynthesis
  • Paper Bridge
  • Paper Marbling
  • Pascal’s Law
  • Play-Doh and Volume
  • Preserve Spider Webs
  • Pressure Volcano
  • Pulse Rates
  • Pythagorean Tuning
  • Refraction in Water
  • Rollercoasters & Loops
  • Rubber Bones
  • Rubber Heat Reaction
  • Rubbery Egg
  • Rust and Moisture
  • Search Engines
  • Secondary Colors
  • Seed Germination
  • Seed Germination II
  • Separate Salt And Pepper
  • Snappy Sounds
  • Soil Erosion
  • Soil vs. Hydroponics
  • Sound Waves
  • Spectrum through Water
  • Speed of Decomposition
  • Speed of Dissolving
  • Spore Prints
  • Star Observer
  • Static Electricity
  • Statistics and M&M’s
  • Stem-less Flowers
  • Super Strength Egg
  • Sweet Erosion
  • Temperature and CPUs
  • Thirsty Rocks
  • Tornado Demonstration
  • Translucent Egg
  • Transpiration in Plants
  • Typing and Speed
  • Vibrating Coin
  • Volcanic Gas
  • Water and Living Things
  • Water Displacement
  • Water Evaporation
  • Water pH
  • Your Planetary Age