Tips to Prevent Your Soda from Going Flat!

Audra and Greg try a few soda hacks on Carolina A.M. and explore the science behind them.

Do you know someone who shakes their soda bottles all in effort to make it stay fresh for longer?  There are a couple of hacks floating out there that people do.  Audra noticed her mom was shaking the ginger ale before putting it away.  She discovered it was in attempt to keep it fresher longer, to keep the fizz.   Others squeeze their bottles for the same reasons.   Here’s a science lesson on both.  Henry’s law states, “At a constant temperature, the amount of a given gas that dissolves in a given type and volume of liquid is directly proportional to the partial pressure of that gas in equilibrium with that liquid.”  Basically the space above the liquid is almost pure carbon dioxide (CO2).  That’s what you’re hearing when you first open a bottle.  The hissing sound is the CO2 coming out. It seeps out much faster when there’s less volume.   By the squeezing bottle, it decrease the space above the solution and increases the amount of pressure inside the container. But on the contrary, shaking it can make it go flat quicker.  Shaking causes more bubbles.  The bubbles serve as a nucleation that the carbon dioxide binds to escapes easier.  So here’s your tip: keep the lid securely on, squeeze if you want, and keep it at a constant temp.  Keep it cold for best results.  In order to keep a dissolved gas in a solution longer, that solution must be as cold as possible.  But here’s the thing…all soft drinks will eventually loose the fizz, and generally go flat within 2-4 days.