Conservation of Mass Lab Investigation

In this lab we investigated whether baking soda and vinegar or pop rocks and soda were able to cause a larger chemical reaction. My hypothesis for the lab was that the baking soda would expand about 4 inches and the pop rocks only 3 in.The way we were able to see which was more effective, we took 2 bottles, 1 full of soda the other with about 50 ml of vinegar. Then we poured a half of a teaspoon of baking soda into the vinegar and about a half bag of pop rocks into the soda. Next, we placed 2 balloons on each of the tops of the soda bottles and as each reacted with the other they created gases which floated up and began to blow the balloon up. The baking soda and vinegar only took about 15 seconds compared to the soda and pop rocks which took almost 3 minutes to fully dissolve. Our results were what I expected, the baking soda and vinegar expanded about 1 inch or so larger than the soda and pop rocks which expanded about 3 inches.

Something I realized about the reactions was, the baking soda and vinegar was a chemical reaction which means that ALL the vinegar and baking soda reacts with each other and creates gases. The pop rocks have air trapped inside them so the gases released are limited to how many pop rocks you have. This could have dramatically changed the outcome of the experiment because if you were to take the same amounts of baking soda and pop rocks and mix it with the other ingredient the baking soda would be about 10 times bigger than the pop rocks. The results defiantly differed from table to table because some people may have stretched their balloons more or less and some people may have moved or shook their bottle creating more gases, and increasing the size of their balloon. On average I think the vinegar and baking soda balloons got about 5 in whereas the soda and pop rocks only got about 3-4 in. My hypothesis was correct as far as our tests went, I said the pop rocks would only be about 3 inches and the baking soda about 4. Overall the lab went as expected and there weren't to many errors or mix-ups throughout. The only thing I would have changed was to have gotten 2 of the same size and shape bottles. Instead we just used the same bottle twice rinsing it out in between.