Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am doing a school science project with Alka-seltzer at different temperatures of different liquids. I am using Coca-cola (cold), wine (cold), orange juice (cold), milk (cold), ice cold water (ice cold), and hot water (hot). I am trying to find out which will dissolve Alka-seltzer the fastest. I know it will be the hot water since the higher the temperature, the lower the dissolution time, but I'm not sure whether I should use any more hot liquids than just water. I am planning to use 1/2 cup of water per trial with 5 trials each liquid. Also, I was going to use 1/2 an Alka-seltzer tablet each trial. Please help me out!

Hello Danehartman,

This is an interesting project looking at the effect of the type of liquid on the time to dissolve the Alka-Seltzer.

You might find this Science Buddies project helpful:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ction-time.
That project uses only water so you can look at the effect of temperature.

Based on the guidance in the Science Buddies project, you will want to try to have each of your liquids at the same temperature so you can look at just the effect of type of liquid. You will need a thermometer to measure the temperature of each liquid and record that in your data sheet.

The Science Buddies project also shows you how to use your smartphone to record the noise level of the Alka-Seltzer reaction!

Let us know if you have more questions ... and have fun!

Madeline