Does a boiled egg weigh the same as a raw egg?

Question

Just one of those things I have been wondering! If an egg is cooked in its shell does it weigh more after it is cooked?

Answer 1

The egg is designed not to absorb liquid or it would be a watery fragmented mess. Remember that the egg is meant to nurture a new chicken from fertilization to birth so it cannot let contaminants in. All the nutrients and materials required to grow a chick are contained inside and once the shell is created only a crack can let anything in. To do so would be the demise of the embryo.

When an egg is boiled, water is heated to a temperature that the makes the inside heat and congeal to cook to a final hardness. The water isn't what cooks it, it's the heat transferred from the burner to the water and then into the egg. The heat travels when the water begins to break down into a vapor (gaseous state) when exposed to it's boiling point (212F/100C). Heating the water excites the water molecules and causes some release of hydrogen and oxygen etc and that causes the gas bubbles during boiling in addition to creating a convective current that distributes the heat throughout the water.

Foods that have fairly permeable tissues or membranes will become softened by boiling. Foods that stiffen when boiled will harden or become firmer. Frying is a form of boiling with oils and fats.Given enough time, frying will harden any substance, even those it initially softens. Fry potatoes or stir-fry vegetables and you will realize what I am saying.

Now back to the egg. If nothing escapes and is lost, the mass and weigh will remain virtually the same (some trivial mass will be lost to any possible leaching of the shell but it must be noted again that the shell is meant to be somewhat impervious). If the shell cracks during boiling, pressure may force some of the contents from the crack but again this will cook fairly rapidly and is rarely separated from the egg.

To summarize: No, it remains fairly constant even if it cracks and leaks a little, at which point it is directly cooked and cooks faster that way, hardening it more quickly.

Newton's laws of conservation prove that in a closed environment such as an egg nothing is lost or gained. It would be physically impossible without destroying the egg or a parasite eating it inside. If it ate the contents the mass and weight inside a closed egg would still be of zero difference in relation to any egg, cooked or not.

Answer 2

Boiled egg.

Answer 3

I'd say it would weigh more after its cooked because the egg would soak up some of the water. but not much more.

Answer 4

Weigh two eggs, one boiled and one raw and give us the answer.

Answer 5

Of course. Law of conservation of mass.

Unless you have a special cooker that converts egg-trons into fissile material that are then converted into energy, as E=MC^2 : That's a HUGE explosion in your kitchen - better stand back!!!

Answer 6

no,it does not
because after cooking it doesnt gain any extra mass in it.
it is just solidified from the liquid and nothing else.

Answer 7

I think it's heavier when it is cooked.