I was doing the Regular and Diet Coke Cans in Water Experiment? Example guide: h

Question

I was doing the Regular and Diet Coke Cans in Water Experiment?

Example guide: http://www.physics.upenn.edu/demolab/man...

And I ran across a weird issue and I'm confused as to why it occurred. Most of the experiments online uses large fish tanks or at least 4 liter bowls. I tried this experiment instead using a 1000 ml beaker (one can), but when I submerged the regular coke can under the water it would float (less then diet coke, but it would float considerably). Is there any reason why this occurred, and wouldn't occur in a large tank?

In addition when I had a small amount of water in the beaker ~60ml of water and I put the diet coke in so the water is half height of the can... the can would then sink?

Also I had an additional question why would diet coke even float... Like how could density be the reason why diet coke float in water. Diet coke is mostly water and it has aluminum (2.7 times more dense then water). So does it float because it is carbonated (gas/head space) and that is why it is less dense than water?

Explanation / Answer

normal coke has more content of sugar than diet coke .

so normal coke is slightly denser than diet coke .

so normal coke sinks while diet coke floats

the reason for diet coke floating is :

yes it do contain water and aluminium

but the air space comes into consideration and decrease the density below water

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse I
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.