coke and bleach experiment

5 coolest experiments involving Coca-Cola

How to perform cool experiments with cola at home

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Don’t drink the Coca-Cola used in any ex­per­i­ments! Ob­serve safe­ty pre­cau­tions when work­ing with heat­ing de­vices.

Reagents and equip­ment

• bleach (15% so­lu­tion sodi­um hypochlo­rite);
• a rusty tool;
• fry­ing pans;

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Diet Coke and Men­tos erup­tion

Toss a Men­to into a bot­tle of Diet Coke. Ob­serve the re­lease of gas and for­ma­tion of a spout of foam .

Coca-Cola and milk

Pour 50 mL Coca-Cola into 30 mL milk . Ob­serve as the milk cur­dles and the so­lu­tion pales.

Coca-Cola and rust

Let a rusty tool sit in 150 mL Coca-Cola for 5 hours. Re­move it from the so­lu­tion, wipe it off with a pa­per tow­el, and pay at­ten­tion to the dis­ap­pear­ance of the rust.

Cola and bleach

Add 20 mL bleach (15% so­lu­tion sodi­um hypochlo­rite) to 50 mL Coca-Cola. Ob­serve as the mix­ture pales.

How much sug­ar does Cola con­tain?

Pour 200 mL of clas­sic Coca-Cola onto a fry­ing pan. Heat un­til all the liq­uid evap­o­rates. Re­peat the ex­per­i­ment in a sec­ond fry­ing pan us­ing Diet Coke. No­tice the large quan­ti­ty of black tar from the clas­sic Coca-Cola.

Process de­scrip­tion

• Men­tos have a rough sur­face, which aids the for­ma­tion of a large amount of car­bon diox­ide gas from the Coca-Cola on its sur­face. Food ad­di­tives in the Cola and Men­tos con­trib­ute to the for­ma­tion of a large quan­ti­ty of foam.
• Milk con­sists main­ly of pro­teins, fats, mi­croele­ments, and wa­ter. When Coca-Cola is added, the phos­phor­ic acid it con­tains forces the milk to cur­dle. Mean­while, the form­ing clots of pro­teins drag col­or­ing mol­e­cules with them, caus­ing the mix­ture to pale.
• Rust con­sists most­ly of iron(III) ox­ide, and de­vel­ops on iron ob­jects due to hu­mid air or house­hold chem­i­cals. But it’s no prob­lem for clas­sic Coca-Cola! A rusty tool left in Coca-Cola will be thor­ough­ly cleaned from the unattrac­tive tar­nish. This hap­pens thanks to the phos­phor­ic acid in Coca-Cola, which dis­solves the iron(III) ox­ide. 2H₃PO₄ + Fe₂O₃ = 2Fe­PO₄ + 3H₂O
• Bleach con­tains sodi­um hypochlo­rite, which is a strong ox­i­diz­ing agent and eas­i­ly ox­i­dizes the col­or­ing mol­e­cules in the Coca-Cola, caus­ing it to pale.
• The main in­gre­di­ents of clas­sic Cola are sug­ar and wa­ter. As the wa­ter evap­o­rates, the mix­ture thick­ens and forms a black mass re­sem­bling tar, which main­ly con­sists of caramelized sug­ar. Diet Coke con­tains sug­ar sub­sti­tutes in­stead of reg­u­lar sug­ar. These sub­sti­tutes are much sweet­er than sug­ar – even be­ing added in tiny amounts, they make the drink ev­ery bit as sweet as the clas­sic ver­sion. As a re­sult, we see a much small­er amount of residue than in clas­sic Cola.

Dozens of experiments you can do at home

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Disappearing Colors Experiment

Easy Bleach Project for Kids

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Let kids see for themselves how bleach works with this easy disappearing colors experiment.

Disappearing Colors Project Materials

• food coloring
• household bleach
• glass or jar
• Fill a glass or jar about halfway full with water.
• Add a few drops of food coloring. Stir the liquid to make it colored.
• Add drops of bleach until the color starts to disappear. You can stir the contents of the glass if you like. Continue until the color is gone.
• Add a few drops of another color. What happens? The color doesn't spread out the same way as it did when coloring was added to pure water. It forms swirls, which may disappear if there is enough bleach in the water.

Why It Works

Bleach contains sodium hypochlorite, which is an oxidizer. It oxidizes or reacts with the chromophore or color molecules in food coloring. Although the pigment molecule remains, it's shape changes so that it can't absorb/reflect light the same way, so it loses its color as a result of the chemical reaction .

Safety Information

• Be careful to avoid spilling bleach on skin or clothes. Rinse any spills immediately with lots of water.
• Make sure young experimenters don't drink bleach or the contents of the glass. Diluted bleach is not particularly dangerous, but not good for you either!
• When you are done with the project, it's safe to dump the contents of the glass down the drain and to re-use the washed glass for food.
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When you mix Coca-Cola with bleach something deadly but amazing happens

This experiment proves how household cleaner can turn a fizzy drink into a lethal concoction - but it's not to be tried at home as it can kill.

• 10:10, 31 DEC 2015
• Updated 16:04, 31 DEC 2015

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If you've ever used a household bleach to clean your bathroom or kitchen then you'll be aware just how effective it is for removing stains.

But have you ever thought about pouring it into a glass of brown coloured fizzy soda to see what happens?

Well the maker of this video should probably have warned you that it's a very dangerous experiment indeed.

Coke the chemical phosphoric acid which reacts with hypochlorite in bleach and releases chlorine gas.

In the correct dosage it can easily become a chemical weapon and in fact accidental chlorine gas exposure has caused death.

This video should come with a public safety warning - but it shows exactly what happens when you mix bleach with Coca-Cola .

And the results while not exactly staggering are interesting.

This YouTube video posted by CrazyRussianHacker - has not only had four million hits - but it has turned this bonkers wannabe scientist into a viral sensation.

And while his unorthodox approach to traditional experiments is rudimentary it's most certainly amusing.

To begin with CrazyRussianHacker takes the powerful bleach and mixes it with a coke and as if by magic, or chemical process, seconds later the colour slowly disappears.

And it literally takes just two minutes for the bleach to dissolve the brown colour which is caused by the chemical 4-methylimidazole .

While this video which looks as if it was shot on the CrazyRussianHacker's porch is fun, it's certainly not advisable to play around with bleach - especially around kids.

Many thousands of children, adults and pets are injured due to the ferocious chemicals within household cleaning products each year by way of ingestion or through contact with skin.

While hundreds more are killed through deliberate actions involving the substance.

And while CrazyRussianHacker may be entertaining, safety isn't his first priority, doing the experiment entirely without rubber gloves.

So don't try this at home people!

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Coca Cola Science Fair Projects

Science Fair Project on Soda Dissolving a Nail in Four Days

Coca-Cola is one of the most famous soda producers in the world. After 125 years in production, the drink has come to be more than just a refreshing beverage. Customers have used Coca-Cola for tasks as monotonous as removing rust from metal to creating delicious desserts. Students have also found uses for Coca-Cola in school science fair projects. There are numerous science fair projects that use Coca-Cola to prove hypotheses.

• Will Coke Dissolve a Nail?

The "Will Coke Dissolve a Nail?" experiment seeks to answer whether one of the active ingredients in Coca-Cola, phosphoric acid, can dissolve a nail. The experiment needs four to five different sodas, including Coca-Cola, as well as tap water, clear cups to keep the liquid in, steel nails and human toenail clippings. The student pours the various beverages into the cups, pouring enough liquid to cover the nails. The nails are then placed in the cups. The student then observes the experiment every 24 hours for four days. The physical characteristics of both the nail and liquid are recorded. After four days, the student concludes whether Coca-Cola, or any of the beverages, can dissolve a nail.

Does Diet Coke Float?

The experiment "The Density of Coca-Cola" explores whether Coca-Cola and Diet Coke will sink or float. The experiment requires two clear containers filled with tap water and a can of Coca-Cola and Diet Coke. The student pours the can of Coca-Cola into one container and the Diet Coke into the other. The conclusion is drawn after the student observes whether the soda sits on the top of the water or sinks to the bottom.

Coca Cola Egg

The "Coca-Cola Egg" experiment demonstrates the effects of Coca-Cola on teeth and answers the question "Does toothpaste really work?" The student places two eggs in two different glasses. Then, the student pours Coca-Cola over the eggs and lets them soak for 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes, the student takes the eggs out of the soda and records observations about the appearance of the egg. After recording any observations, the student attempts to remove the discoloration from the egg using toothpaste. At the end of the experiment, the student answers the question "Does toothpaste really work?"

Can Coca-Cola Clean a Penny?

A simple Coca-Cola science fair project is to determine if Coca-Cola can clean a penny. In this experiment the student places a dirty penny in a cup of Coca-Cola. She leaves the cup alone for 24 hours and observes what happens to the penny, which will be completely cleaned. An extension of this science fair project is to leave the penny in the Coca-Cola for ten days. After the ten days, the student will find that the penny completely disappears.

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About the Author

Allison Rogers has been professionally writing curriculum for university level classes since 2009. She writes for the Web sites eHow and Answerbag, specializing in educational articles. She received her Master of Arts in curriculum and instruction 2006 from Arizona State University.

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