Soda Science

Today we attended a class at a local church. A homeschooling mom needed to raise money for her kids to go to camp this summer so she organized and taught a science class based on the properties of soda. Here's some of what we learned:

1. CO2 is what makes the bubbles
2. a can of diet soda floats but a can of regular soda sinks (the sugar in the regular soda makes it more dense)
3. when you put raisins in soda they dance (the bubbles 'hug' the raisin making it lighter so that it floats but, when it gets to the top, the bubbles pop releasing the CO2 and the raisin sinks again)
4. when you add sugar or salt to soda it makes it fizz (they react with the CO2)
5. when you heat a can of soda that has just a little bit of water in it and then dunk it upside down in ice water it collapses (the water turns to vapor, which takes up more room; when it is cooled quickly it condenses and reduces the pressure inside the can and the outside air pressure, being greater, crushes the can)
   
6. when you put a bunch of Mentos into a 2 liter bottle of soda it can make a 35 ft geyser (the sugar reacting with the CO2 again)

The moral of this story is that things that may damage your body can be used to improve your mind. And, not only did we learn a lot and had fun, we helped some kids get to camp. I thought it was very industrious of that mom (who just happens to be the woman that taught Luke science in highschool).