Conservation of Mass Investigation

My group hypothesized that the reactions with soda and pop rocks would produce enough gas to partially inflate the balloon, and the test with baking soda and vinegar would inflate the balloon to a greater degree,

When we added the pop rocks to the soda, there was an immediate fizzing that took place. At first the soda itself just produced bubbles, but then the ballon began to inflate from the gases being released. The balloon continued to slowly inflate for about 30 more seconds, until it was about the size of a baseball. When the gas release ceased, the pop rocks could be seen floating on the surface.

In the experiment with baking soda and vinegar, the reaction began instantly and was much faster than the previous test. The reaction was larger despite having significantly less liquid than before. This time the balloon swelled up to about the size of a very large grapefruit in a short amount of time. The ballon felt more solid in this experiment too, which also shows it inflated more this time. After we poured the vinegar back into the graduated cylinder for analysis, there seemed to be more liquid than we started with, but the vinegar had bubbles interspersed throughout, which would have offset the measurement.

Our hypothesis was partially supported. Both balloons inflated to a greater degree than we had predicted they would. We did predict that the baking soda and vinegar would have a more powerful reaction. We thought this from past experience making volcanoes and from the fact that the two ingredients are more commonly used in experiments like this by teachers. If baking soda and vinegar made a lesser reaction than pop rocks and soda, then they wouldn't be used. For the pop rocks experiment, some factors that may have affected the differing results among groups were the flavors and colors used in the rocks as well as the type and level of carbonation of the soda. It was determined that the experiment conducted was not a chemical reaction but a physical one, because the CO2 in the candy and soda was simply being released and no bonds were broken or created. The soda was used as a reactant because of its Carbon Dioxide content, as were the pop rocks. In the baking soda and vinegar experiment, a combination of CO2 and water vapor was released.