Conservation of Mass Investigation

Conservation of Mass

Problem: How much gas will be released when pop rocks are dropped into a 20 oz bottle of soda and how much gas will be released when baking soda is dropped into vinegar?
Hypothesis: The balloon over the pop rocks and soda will be 3 inches tall when it is full of gas and the gas from the baking soda and vinegar will fill the balloon to be 6 inches.

Results:

This picture is of the soda and pop rocks. The balloon was filled with about three inches of carbon dioxide.

This picture is of the baking soda and vinegar and this balloon was filled with about 4 inches of carbon dioxide.

Conclusion:
My hypothesis was partially correct because the pop rocks and soda balloon was 3 inches long and the baking soda and vinegar was longer than the pop rocks and soda lab, but it wasn’t quite as long as I had expected. It may have been as long as I had thought, but some air was let out of the balloon when we were trying to find a way to block it. It may have been longer if this had not occurred. Other problems we ran into, were with the balloon because it was not very sturdy and this may have changed the results. If I were to repeat this lab, I would try using a different type of soda to see if it made any difference. With the soda and pop rocks, the reaction took about 2 minutes and 30 seconds. With the baking soda and vinegar, however, the reaction lasted for about 15 seconds. The pop rocks test demonstrated a physical change because the acidity in the soda melted the candy of the pop rocks to release the carbon dioxide trapped inside the pop rocks into the balloon. The baking soda and vinegar demonstrated a chemical change and all of the atoms reacted together to release the carbon dioxide. Even though it appeared that some of the material was lost when the baking soda and vinegar were combined, all of the mass was still there, just in a different form. It had a different weight because some of the liquid became carbon dioxide. It was the same process with the pop rocks and soda because there was less weight when the carbon dioxide was released, but none of the atoms disappeared, just changed forms.