The Floating Egg and Refraction

This past weekend my daughters and I did the Floating Egg Experiment.  It worked out great and we let it sit on the counter for several days to see if it would sink.  After 5 days the egg had yet to sink or rise any further in the fresh water/salt water mixture.  One thing we did notice was that the egg looked different inside the container.  It didn't look the same shape as an egg pulled directly out of the fridge.  At first glance it may seem like the salt water caused the egg to change shape over time, but this wasn't the case at all.  The egg only appeared different due to refraction.  Watch our video below.

As you can see, once the egg is removed from the water, it looks like a normal egg.  So what is refraction?  Refraction is the bending of light as it passes from one medium to another.  In this case the light has passed from the water, through the container plastic, to the air in the room.  The bending of this light makes the egg appear to be misshaped.  You've likely seen this before.  If you look at fish in a fish tank and then shift position from looking through the side of the tank to the top of the tank, you'll notice that the fish appear to change size.  They are, of course, not changing size, but the bending of light gives this odd effect.  

Seeing refraction in action was a bonus to the floating egg experiment!