Hooked on science: Make a soda can explosion

It's happened to us all once or twice. We go to open our favorite can of soda and it spews all over the place. You can stop this from happening by using a little science trick. And it has nothing to do with tapping the top.

Ingredients

• Can of soda

Instructions

STEP 1: Rapidly shake a can of soda.

STEP 2: Instead of tapping the top of the can, tap the side of the can several times

STEP 3: Open the soda

Explanation

By tapping the side you dislodged the carbon dioxide bubbles from the walls of the can to the top of the can. Once the can was opened, the carbon dioxide bubbles rushed out and the soda stayed in the can.

Jason Lindsey is a Science Outreach Educator for the Bootheel Youth Museum. Check out his Web site "Hooked On Science" at hookedonscience.org for webcasts and experiments that might get you hooked on science. Send him your science questions at jlindsey@bootheelyouthmuseum.org. More science experiments can be found at www.semissourian.com.