Answer 1:
I like your Rubber Bones experiment. I never
heard of it before, but I googled it and found
out how to do it.
I like your milk experiment too! I'm
surprised the bones were softer, but I'm not
surprised that the bones didn't get harder.
Animals make bones in complex ways, with cells
called osteoblasts that build bone and cells
called osteoclasts that break bone down. Those
bone cells would all be dead after the bone was
cooked (I'm guessing the bone was cooked and
then the chicken was eaten off). Or, soaking in
vinegar would kill the bone cells, if they
weren't dead already. And, the bone cells
probably don't live a long time after the
chicken dies, because they're not getting food
any longer; and food is needed for cells to live
and grow.
I wonder why the bones got softer.
1. Do you think more calcium soaked out of the
bones while the bones were in milk? This might
have happened even though there is calcium in
milk, because there weren't any live bone cells
to build calcium back into the bone.
2. Do you think the bones got softer just
because they were sitting around in some liquid,
where they were decomposing; or do you think
milk made the bones get soft faster than they
would have in another liquid? At first I just
thought of milk vs water, but then I thought of
vegetable oil, which is very different from
water and milk. Bacteria or germs might
decompose the bones in milk or water, but
bacteria or germs wouldn't be able to live in
oil, because all living things need water.
That's one of the differences between milk or
water and oil.
3. How could you measure the softness of the
bones? I think I might bend the bones and put
them next to a ruler and take pictures of them
with my cell phone camera.
Finally, here's what I found on the internet
about Rubber Bones, from Science Bob:
rubberbone
The project above is a DEMONSTRATION. To make it
a true experiment, you can try to answer these
questions:
1. Does the length of time the bone is in
vinegar affect how much the bone bends?
2. Do smaller size bones become "bendy" sooner?
3. Do different types of vinegar affect how
bendy bones become ?
Keep asking questions!
Best wishes,
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