As part of the University of Nottingham’s Sixty Symbols science video series, the Cadbury creme egg has been featured just in time for Easter. Why the egg? Almost certainly to have some fun, but also to demonstrate the amazing fundamental scientific laws the govern the universe. Even, delicious cream filled chocolate eggs.
Posting video of massacred candy apparently wasn’t enough. On the Periodic Videos blog, Dr. Donal McNally describes the sheer amount of energy chemically contained within each creme egg.
The difference between chemical energy density and mechanical energy density is huge. A creme egg would have to be moving at more than 6000ms-1 (Mach 20) for its kinetic energy to match its chemical energy. This is why petrol (and creme eggs) make excellent fuel. Similarly, your Mini car would need to do 77mph to have the same kinetic energy as the chemical energy in a creme egg.
More of the “eggsperiments” (groan) are below, with many, many more videos on the Sixty Symbols website.
And last year, the mad chemists subjected the poor Cadbury egg to untold horrors for your viewing pleasure.
(Sixty Symbols via Periodic Videos, BuzzFeed)
Published: Apr 21, 2011 05:31 pm