Conservation of Mass Lab Investigation

Results:

When the pop rocks were introduced to the soda, the soda began to fizz immediately, but not much more then a soda would normally fizz. The balloon began to inflate from the escaping CO2 molecules that were caught in the balloon.


Here is a picture of how much the balloon inflated with the pop ricks and soda.

The reaction with the baking soda and vinegar was a bit more easily predicted because this is a very classic science experiment that has been taught to many children when they were young. Anyhow, when the baking soda was dropped into the vinegar, the mixture started to fizz ferociously, and the large, airy bubbles reached to almost halfway up the bottle. The escaping Carbon atoms inflated the balloon considerately more then the balloon on the soda and pop rocks. After the activity subsided, we measured the amount of vinegar leftover, having exactly the same as before with 50mL. This


Here is a picture of the balloon before we added the baking soda to the vinegar.


Here is a picture of the balloon after we added the baking soda to the vinegar.


To compare the two resulting balloons, the differences are obvious. The soda and pop rocks did not reach the same amount of inflation as the vinegar and baking soda. As well, the vinegar and baking soda had more area to fill up in addition to the balloon because the bottle was mostly empty, compared to the



Conclusion:

I know the escaping molecules in the pop rocks and soda were CO2 because on the package of the pop rocks, it said that they were processed with CO2 which is also in the carbonation in soda. When the two substances met, the sugar coating on the pop rocks was melted away by the soda and left the exposed CO2. Since CO2 is a gas, it floated to the top of the bottle and inflated the balloon to make more area for the gas. If I were able to do this experiment again I would want to do it with a few different types of soda to see if that affects the results. An off-brand soda with less carbonation then a name-brand one might not bubble as much. Flavor, as well as diet or regular, may also affect the results. It would be interesting to see how the amount of carbonation compares between the different soda brands. No mistakes were made during this lab.