Why vinegar reacts with baking soda

The physical changes The solid baking soda was placed in liquid vinegar producing carbon dioxide gas, which is evident because of the formation of bubbles in the foaming mixture. Eventually all of the solid dissolved and reacted producing a new liquid solution.

During the reaction, a solid and liquid have been chemically reacted to form a gas and a liquid. This experiment can also be used to explain foams, as liquids or solids containing gas bubbles. Safety and disposal Although both reactants are household chemicals and foodstuffs, caution should be taken not to get splashes in the eyes and clothes should be protected. Water is often added to acids and bases to tone down the intensity of this exchange. Water also acts as host in which the acid and base can break apart and react.

An ion is a charged atom or molecule. Acetic acid doesn't break apart on its own in water as much as sodium bicarbonate; it's mostly diluted so it's not as strong. When we mix baking soda and acetic acid in water together, acetic acid gives its proton to the broken-apart baking soda and together they form sodium acetate CH 3 COONa , water H 2 O , and carbon dioxide CO 2. These products are created quickly, and the carbon dioxide comes out as a gas, so the whole event is spectacular as you've seen!

By reacting with each other, the acidic acetic acid and the basic sodium bicarbonate give up a lot of their energy and create things that have a lower energy relative to each other. The universe favors things at their lowest energy, and so we see a lot of exciting reactions involving acids and bases.

Concerning the answers 2 and 5 above, the important thing to note is that a hydrogen atom is just a proton and an electron with no neutrons. Ok, actually in about 0. We call those atoms deuterium, or heavy hydrogen. This is completely correct, if a little jargony.

For examples of this language, you can search "proton transfer" online. However, for the purposes of describing baking the soda and vinegar to a broad audience, there is no need to talk about protons as subatomic particles in the way answer 2 did.

What they probably should have done is replace the word proton with "hydrogen ion," and not mentioned the part about a proton being a subatomic particle at all. However, rest assured that all of the Scienceline answers to this question are talking about hydrogen ions moving from one molecule to another, and none of them are talking about the proton from the hydrogen combining with another nucleus, which would be a nuclear reaction. For better or worse the terminology most people use is "proton.

Concerning the answers 2 and 5 above, the hydrogen atom is indeed just a proton and an electron. The atom with a proton and a neutron in the nucleus is still hydrogen, but as a heavy hydrogen isotope has a special name - deuterium. So a proton is indeed or can act as a chemical entity, the cationic form of a hydrogen atom.

When combined, the hydrogen atom in the acetic acid meets up with the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the baking soda to form a molecule of water, while the acetate ion grabs onto the sodium atom and forms a salt, sodium acetate. The carbon dioxide molecule, free of its other chemical bonds, can now escape and bubbles forth as a gas.

Our ever expanding list of toys that use bi-carb and vinegar as fuel. Baking soda and vinegar react which makes these toys awesome. Knowledge How Stuff Works. The reaction between baking soda and vinegar actually occurs in two steps, but the overall process can be summarized by the following word equation: baking soda sodium bicarbonate plus vinegar acetic acid yields carbon dioxide plus water plus sodium ion plus acetate ion. The chemical equation for the overall reaction is:.

Another common way to write this reaction is:. The above reaction, while technically correct, does not account for the dissociation of the sodium acetate in water.

The chemical reaction actually occurs in two steps. First, there is a double displacement reaction in which acetic acid in the vinegar reacts with sodium bicarbonate to form sodium acetate and carbonic acid:. Carbonic acid is unstable and undergoes a decomposition reaction to produce the carbon dioxide gas :. The carbon dioxide escapes the solution as bubbles. The bubbles are heavier than air, so the carbon dioxide collects at the surface of the container or overflows it.

In a baking soda volcano, detergent usually is added to collect the gas and form bubbles that flow somewhat like lava down the side of the 'volcano. If the water is boiled off of this solution, a supersaturated solution of sodium acetate forms. This " hot ice " will spontaneously crystallize, releasing heat and forming a solid that resembles water ice.

The carbon dioxide released by the baking soda and vinegar reaction has other uses besides making a chemical volcano. It can be collected and used as a simple chemical fire extinguisher.