How to Have Fun With Vinegar and Baking Soda

This was something that as a kid I improvised as a modification of the old vinegar and baking soda (acid and base) chemical reaction. It's fun and a little bit educational!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Baking soda
• Vinegar
• Small, airtight container/lid

1. Choose a container with pop-on/pop-off lid. Use a simple pop-on/pop-off pill bottle for this, but realize that you're not likely to find pill bottles so easily opened anymore. Try a camera film cannister or similar. There are also tiny Tupperware containers that are in the ballpark.

2. Pour Some Baking Soda Into the Container. You don't even need to fill it halfway.

3. With some haste and the cap at the ready, pour some vinegar on top of the baking soda, quickly replacing the cap.

4. Hurl the container high into the air, outdoors of course. Do this over the front yard.

5. Watch (and hear) your container explode. The cap will blow off in mid-air and you can hear a "pop".

6. Repeat!

Tips & Warnings

• Scientific explanation - Vinegar is acetic acid (CH3COOH), baking soda is sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3). CH3COOH + NaHCO3 ---> CH3COONa + H2CO3. H2CO3 is carbonic acid, which is unstable and rapidly decomposes into carbon dioxide and water H2CO3 ---> H2O + CO2 So the small mess that spews is sodium acetate (CH3COONa) in water (H2O), as the carbon dioxide gas (Co2) escapes (causing the top to pop).
• Surprise a friend who doesn't know about acids and bases.
• Don't do this in the living room.

Resources

• Science Experiments for Kids.

[gahazeleyes]

on 6/12/2009 Thanks for sharing.

[AbbyNormal]

on 5/13/2008 boys, boys, boys ....

[jimdris]

on 12/31/2007 We did something similar as kids with dry ice. We'd put a small piece in an empty plastic bleach bottle, add a cup of water, screw on the plastic lid, and throw it into the garage and shut the door. The rapid release of CO2 would rupture the bottle and make a loud BOOM!