Hooked on Science: Exploding sandwich bag

Has your sandwich bag ever exploded? It can if you replace the sandwich with a few other ingredients from around the house.

Materials

* Baking soda

* Vinegar

* Paper towel

* Ziploc bag

Instructions

STEP 1: Tear a paper towel into four equal pieces. Using one of the pieces, pour two tablespoons of baking soda into the center of the paper towel square. Fold the square into a smaller square so the baking soda stays inside.

STEP 2: Fill the Ziploc bag 1/4th of the way with vinegar.

STEP 3: Drop the paper towel square into the Ziploc bag. Holding the Ziploc bag over the trash can, close it, and observe.

Explanation

When you mixed the baking soda with the vinegar, you caused a chemical reaction, which created carbon dioxide gas. The carbon dioxide gas caused the bag to expand and eventually pop.

Jason Lindsey is a science outreach educator with Hooked on Science. Check out his website ww.hookedonscience.org for webcasts and experiments.