Using Carbonated Beverages to Clean

INT1 Task 3 Experiment

A. Experiment Plan/Problem
This experiment has a goal of testing a household cleaning theory that dark sodas such as Coca Cola or Pepsi can be used as a cleaning agent and cut through dirt and grease effectively as a cleaner. For the experiment, the researcher/writer has purchased Pepsi products, Pepsi specifically to use as the cleaning product to test. The researcher/writer will clean six different types of messes (Food stains of ketchup and mustard on a shirt, kitchen counter grime/grease, bathroom counter soap scum, car windshield and battery corrosion on a car battery and bathroom counter/sink). Each item will be cleaned with Pepsi and soap and water, with the soap …show more content…

It is also worth noting that other searches noted that results improved over several days, recommending for science experiments to leave the coin soaking for about a week. This result seems to occur because acid is formed that forces CO2 into a liquid and then when the pressure releases, the CO2 returns to an original state (forming the bubbles in soda). The carbonic acid that was created reacts to dirt or residue on the coin and does seem to be effective as a household cleaner by eating away the lime like substance that covers the coin and any dirt also. (“Why does Soda Pop clean coins” by Windy Hamilton at eHow.com,http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5162064_soda-pop-clean-coins.html)

Our experiment will not include coinage but this article does seem to give credence that acid in soda can work as a household cleaner in at least this case, giving some credence to the purported reporting that we, i.e., are testing. Upon further investigation, researcher also found quite a few instances in different articles where carbonated soda, specifically listed as Coke, is listed as a cleaning agent. A green cleaning website lists it as an alternative for those who are concerned about using “harmful” chemical in their home. (see list below in references of these sites) After reading several user comments about sodas also cleaning blood, it was possible to find an article which refers to several highway patrols using the soda to clean