Pop Rock Mania

Question: 
What variables will make the balloon inflate the largest ?

Hypothesis:
The diet soda will blow up the balloon better than regular soda, because of the artificial sweeteners found in the diet soda. 

Our Experiment

              Materials:

• 4 different types of 16 oz of soda (Diet Coke, Mountain Dew, Coke, Orange soda)
• Balloons
• Pop Rocks (Grape, Strawberry, Blue Raspberry)
• Funnels

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Observations:
The darker colored diet soda blew up the balloon more than the regular soda and lighter color sodas such as Mountain Dew and orange soda.  In addition to trying different varieties of soda, we tried different flavors of Pop Rocks, which did not seem to affect the size of the balloon.  For example, diet soda and strawberry Pop Rocks didn’t blow up the balloon more than diet soda and grape Pop Rocks. We also tested different temperature sodas (refrigerated vs. room temperature), which also didn’t affect the size that the balloon inflated to. 


Procedure:

1.  Open the bag of Pop Rocks.

2.  Place the narrow end of the funnel into the      mouth of the balloon.

3.  Pour the bag of pop rocks into the funnel,        making sure all the candies are inside the          balloon.

4.  Open the bottle of soda.

5.  Put the balloon over the mouth of a bottle        of soda. Make sure the mouth of the bottle        is covered by the balloon and make sure the     Pop Rocks don't fall into the soda.

6.  Make the pop rocks fall into the soda.

7.  And have fun!

Safety Procedures:

Hold the balloon over the mouth of the bottle as you add pop rocks so it doesn't fly off. 

Watch us in action:
<feel free to add pictures, videos, etc>

Conclusion:
In conclusion, our hypothesis was correct. When the pop rocks fall into the soda, the carbon dioxide escapes from the artificial sweeteners found in the diet soda. The carbon dioxide has nowhere to go in the bottle and it rises into the balloon. At the end of all the experiments, the diet sodas had the largest balloons.

Robbie:

I'm 10 years old and favorite sport is baseball.   I'm also a brown-belt in Karate and working towards my junior black-belt.  My favorite food is fried calamari.

Connor:

I am 10 years old and my favorite sports are baseball and lacrosse.  I have two cats named Boo and Bear and two goldfish.  My 5th grade teachers are Mrs. Colella and Mrs. Sarfaty.