Hooked on Science: Fizzics of soda

Grab a can of soda and a calculator to determine how much weight you can gain by drinking too much soda.

Materials

* Can of soda

* Calculator

Instructions

STEP 1: Discover how many grams of sugar there is in your favorite soda by looking at the Nutrition Facts on the side of the can.

STEP 2: One teaspoon of sugar is equal to about 4.2 grams. Therefore, divide the grams of sugar in your soda by 4.2 grams to get the number to teaspoons. For example, if you discovered 28 grams of sugar in your favorite can of soda, you would take that number and divide it by 4.2 grams. That would give you 6.7 teaspoons of sugar.

Explanation

If you drink two 12-ounce sodas every day for one month, you will consume about 5.6 gallons of soda, gulp down about 5 pounds of sugar, and take in more than 8,000 calories.

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