Discovering the Ingredients in a Can of Soda

Ever wonder what is in that can of soda you're drinking?  Here's a cool science experiment you can do with your kids to directly see what is in the soda.  When you look at the back of the can you can read the ingredients, but seeing the ingredients provides a much better understanding of the soda's contents.

For example, when you look at the back of a Sprite can, you'll see something similar to the above image.  The first ingredient is carbonated water, the primary ingredient in soda.  Then comes high fructose corn syrup.  In the nutrition facts table you see that this can of Sprite contains 38 grams of sugar.  So what does 38 grams of sugar look like?  It's easy to figure out.  Take a can of soda and pour it into a small saucepan.  Place the saucepan on a stove burner and bring the liquid to a boil.

Let the soda boil for a few minutes until all of the liquid boils away.  What is left is a brown syrupy mix.  That's the sugar that was in the soda.  

Mmmm...yummy.  :-)  Makes you think twice about drinking that can of soda!  Anyways, a great experiment to teach your kids about what is inside a can of soda.  You can also do this with fruit juice.  Try it with fruit juice, orange juice, etc., and see what you come up with!

Oh yeah, if you are feeling especially adventurous, dump cold water in the syrupy mix.  It will very quickly cool down to a hard clump that you can't remove from the pan!  The only way to easily get it out is to reheat the syrup back into a liquid.