Dr. Thomas R. Rybolt - Soda Pop Science Fair Projects

This book is dedicated to Jaxon and Caleb Hart the next generation.

Acknowledgment

I appreciate the help of my childrenKaren, Megan, Ben, and Leahin developing and testing some of the experiments and the work of students in my 1998 and 1999 Honors General Chemistry classes who investigated carbonated beverage properties.

Disclaimer: Products and company names used are the trademarks of their owners.

Published in 2016 by Enslow Publishing, LLC
101 W. 23rd Street, Suite 240, New York, NY 10011

Copyright 2016 by Thomas R. Rybolt

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rybolt, Thomas R.

Soda pop science fair projects / by Thomas R. Rybolt.

p. cm. (Prize-winning science fair projects)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7660-7024-0 (library binding)

1. Carbonated beveragesJuvenile literature. 2. Science projectsJuvenile literature. 3. Soft drinksExperiments. I. Rybolt, Thomas R. II. Title.

TP630.R93 2016

663.62d23

Printed in the United States of America

To Our Readers: We have done our best to make sure all Web site addresses in this book were active and appropriate when we went to press. However, the author and the publisher have no control over and assume no liability for the material available on those Web sites or on any Web sites they may link to. Any comments or suggestions can be sent by e-mail to .

Portions of this book originally appeared in the book Soda Pop Science Projects Experiments With Carbonated Soft Drinks.

Illustration Credits: Accurate Art, Inc. c/o George Barile.

Photo Credits: Givaga/ (science background throughout book).

Cover Credits: Givaga/Shutterstock.com (pouring cola); Ohn Mar/Shutterstock.com (science background).

Contents

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 How Sweet It Is: Sugars and Sweeteners

1.1 Cola FloatRegular or Diet

1.2 Left BehindEvaporation and Sugar Content

1.3 Determining the Density of Cola

1.4 Calculating Calories

CHAPTER 2 Fizzy Drinks: Carbon Dioxide in Action

2.1 Trapping Carbon Dioxide

2.2 Temperature and Going Flat

2.3 Push of Pressure

2.4 Fizzy Foam Lifetime

CHAPTER 3 Soda Science: Acids, Additives, and Adhesives

3.1 Acidic or Basic Drink

3.2 Removing Color

3.3 A Sticky SolutionMaking Glue

CHAPTER 4 Changes: Freezing, Boiling, and More

4.1 Lowering Freezing Point

4.2 Raising Boiling Point

4.3 Creating Bubbles with Salt

4.4 Removing Rust and Dissolving Metal Oxides

CHAPTER 5 Hold That Drink: Metal, Glass, and Plastic

5.1 Pop a TopHolding Pressure

5.2 Watching WeightA Comparison of Solids

5.3 Speed of Heat Flow

CHAPTER 6 Soda Sensations: Smell and Taste

6.1 Tasting Time

6.2 Identifying Drinks by Odor

6.3 A Tasty Smell

6.4 Taste Threshold

Further Reading

Web Sites

Index

INTRODUCTION

A large supermarket has thousands of cans and bottles of soft drinks available for you to buy. Which brand is the best-selling? Coca-Cola. Each year, the Coca-Cola Company sells the equivalent of about 410 billion 8-oz servings of soda pop and other beverages!

You may drink colas and other sodas, but what does that have to do with science? This book uses colas and other carbonated beverages as a way to explore science. This collection of science experiments and activities can be done alone or developed into science fair projects. After some fun with these experiments, you might learn to see every can or bottle of soda both as a drink you can enjoy and as a small laboratory waiting to be opened and explored.

History

Many carbonated beverages, especially colas, became popular in the late 1800s. Coca-Cola was one of them. In 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, a pharmacist named John Pemberton developed a new drink based on ingredients he had extracted from the kola nut and coca plant. He arranged to have his drink sold at Jacobs Pharmacy, the largest pharmacy in Atlanta.

At the time, many pharmacies had soda fountains where people would have drinks made and served. Frank Robinson, Pembertons partner and bookkeeper, suggested the name Coca-Cola since the drink came from the coca plant and kola nut. Coca-Cola was a hit with customers. Asa Candler bought the rights to Coca-Cola in 1891. Soda fountains around the United States began selling carbonated Coca-Cola.

In 1894, Joseph Biedenharn set up a machine in his pharmacy to bottle Coca-Cola so that people could drink it at places other than soda fountains. Carbon dioxide gas was forced under pressure into water to make carbonated water. The bottles were sealed so that the gas could not escape until the bottle was opened.

In 1899, Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead in Tennessee obtained the rights to bottle Coca-Cola nationwide. Along with Whiteheads new partner, Jack Thomas Lupton, they developed a system of independent bottlers who paid for the cost of building the factories to bottle Coke. The Coca-Cola Company supplied the Coca-Cola syrup, and the bottlers mixed the syrup with carbonated water.

In 1919, Mr. Candler sold the Coca-Cola Company to Ernest Woodruff for $25 million. Woodruffs son Robert Woodruff became president four years later. In 1928, Coca-Cola was the first drink to be sold at any Olympics. Robert Woodruff, who was active with the company for sixty years, helped to spread the drinking of Coca-Cola around the world. The Coca-Cola Company developed and introduced many other carbonated drinks, including Fanta in 1960, Sprite in 1961, TAB in 1963, Mr. Pibb in 1972, Mello Yello in 1979, diet Coke in 1982, Surge in 1997, Vanilla Coke in 2002, Coke Zero in 2005, and Coca-Cola Life (sweetened with stevia and sugar) in 2013.

As the Coca-Cola Company developed and expanded, other companies did too. Many other companies make a variety of colas and other carbonated soft drinks that compete with the Coca-Cola Companys beverages. Today hundreds of different carbonated drinks are bottled and sold around the world.

How to Use This Book

Each chapter in this book has an introduction to a topic, followed by three or four main experiments. Each experiment will expand your knowledge of the chapter topic. The experiments do not have to be done in any special order. You can skip around in the book to find the chapters that interest you most. However, you should read the chapter introduction before you perform any of the experiments in that chapter.

A section at the beginning of each experiment lists the materials you will need. The materials are all common items in your home or for sale at a grocery store.

At the end of each experiment, you will find a section called Project Ideas and Further Investigations that contains suggestions for additional experiments. You can use the original experiments or suggested further experiments as a great starting point to develop your own science fair project. Some of the initial activities are brief and are intended to be developed further in order to have a complete science fair project.

You should use a science notebook when you are doing experiments. Any notebook with bound pagessuch as a spiral notebookwill do. You should always record the date, a description of what you are doing, and all your data and observations. If you are working on a science fair project, your notebook will be an important source of information to show your teacher and judges the work you have done.