12 October 2012

How to open a shaken soda can


With a passing tribute to Don Herbert ("Mr. Wizard").

3 comments:

  1. Cool, but I'm *not* gonna share - what's the fun if they know?

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  2. Not only interesting but practical. I look forward to amazing my kids the next time a can is dropped (or shaken).

    Of course we all know about "sites of nucleation" from the Diet Coke and Mentos craze. This is using that knowledge to prevent a fountain rather than cause one. I note at about the 2:10 mark he says "just don't do it with diet though, the bubbles just go around to the other side. My wife's husband did that once and it went everywhere" (I like that, my wife's husband.) This seems to suggest that the bubbles in diet are different, more tenacious. I note also that in the Diet Coke and Mentos craze there was a lot of discussion about comparing other soft drinks and as I recall the general consensus was that Diet Coke was the best.

    This leads me to wonder about the effects of the bubbles of diet vs regular after it is consumed and in the stomach, with particular regard to the production of burps. This strikes me as a topic which deserves further investigation, at least further discussion.

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  3. Let's not forget that "diet" aspartame sweetener has been shown again and again by independant studies to cause tumours (a.k.a. cancer) in rat brains.

    Aren't children just like rats? - Known to carry diseases.

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