Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

What do you think will evaporate first water, milk, soda or orange juice?

Well, if you think about it, all the liquids you mentioned are water based.
Milk- water, proteins, lipids, carbs, vitamins, and minerals
soda- water, carbon dioxide, sugars, flavorings
orange juice- water, carbs, vitamins, minerals, and natural pigments

when you add most solid substances (ex. carbs, proteins, minerals, ect.) to water it becomes more dense. Therefore, more energy is required to evaporate water + solids. This means that plain water (not salted) will evaporate faster than the other substances. Although, since soda has a lot of CO2, the volume of the soda might appear to evaporate much faster, but it's not losing that much mass. Acurately measuring evaporation requires measuring mass, not volume.

let me know if you have any more questions.

-scienceexpert123

So If I put a small amount of these liquids under 60 watt bulbs will the results be the same as you mentioned?

yeah, if each liquid is exposed to the same environment then the plain water will probably evaporate the quickest by mass, but the soda will probably evaporate (the fizz (CO2) will go into the air) by volume quicker. Make sure you mass everything while watching the evaporation, instead of looking at the volume.

let me know if you need any more help

good luck,
scienceexpert123

will water evaporate quicker than tea, sprite, and cranberry juice?

Try it and find out!

Sybee