Hot soda?
Posted by: Priya on: July 3, 2007
There’s a curious cat in my head and it wants to know this -
What happens when one microwaves a glass of soda (or any aerated drink)?
One could try it out and see what happens, but microwaves don’t grow on trees, ya know and I have only one so I better take good care of it. Or I’ll have to bake my cakes in a pressure cooker and I have no clue how that is done!
So for the love of microwaves, tell me what happens!
If you’re wondering why I got this doubt, well…I had a cup of tea and a glass of cold soda beside the microwave. One had to be heated, one didn’t. I almost heated the one that didn’t require heating. Almost. But there is a God and He loves me, so I heated my tea correctly! Yay, me!
P.S: No snide comments on my cooking abilities, please. Re-heating is not cooking. And one is allowed to be absent-minded and/or d’oh once in a while. And hey, it’s not like I heated soda! I’m just askin’!
37 Responses to "Hot soda?"
Hello,
This link might be helpful.
http://www.stevespangler.com/archives/2004/11/24/warning-water-can-explode-in-the-microwave/
Talks of super heating and hence heating water in a microwave could be dangerous!
Another news is baking soda can actually be used to clean a microwave, though it may be risky as the following link says.
tipnut.com/how-to-microwave-cleaning-tips/
I was just curious, so did a Google search.
Sathej
hmm..thinking…
Soda has water. So water will evaporate. Soda also has CO2 (carbon di oxide). Doing my chemical equation, CO2+H2O should give carbonic acid!!! I
I have absolutely no clue what happens to th heated acid!
Aparna – few seconds, fine…how about like 10 minutes? *devilish grin* can you try it and tell me please? 
Sathej – I have read about heating water to very high temp in a microwave can be harmful…but there’s absolutely no other effects if its aerated water? I could do a google too, but I jus wanna know what people say
Biofreak – Deduced like a true Bio freak! and the last line is the icing on the cake!
ippadi yosicha.. india oda miga periya scientist…en.. future presidentey neenga dhan…
BioFreak…u no less…eppadi aalaalukku ippadi yosikireenga…how how how?
yosippadhu moolai irukindradhu enradhukkaana ariguri..adhu theriyaamal yen indha pulambal? satru oramaaga poi amarndhu thaangalum yosiyingal..yosiththu badhil sollungal
I’m actually tired after speaking all that tamil. phew!
From what I know, heating would expel all gases and hence there should not be any difference in how aerated water would behave under superheating. I’ll think it over a little more and let you know – this time I won’t Google, rather look up some books!
Sathej
exactly my doubt.. if heating expels all gases and the gases are acted upon by microwave radiation, what happens?
hey, dont bother with the ‘actual’ effects..I’m jus goofin’ around anyway! 
Idha neenga tanjore temple la kalvettu la ezhudhi vechenganaa, ungalukku adhuthu vara sangadhigal adha padichu, araayandhu adhuku oru badhil solvaanga…:P
Ila ekkuva alochisthe burra fry avuthundi. Velli nidhara po
@me – adhellam apdiye thaana vardhudhaan!
@Priya – You are kindling the idle brain from around the world! hats off And, you shd also start a blog in tamil too I guess!
The glass breaks …The soda spills…your microwave oven conks 
Typical layman answer (read typical asinine reply) that was 
er….when you come to know what happens, would you pls tell me?
I hope it’s something explosive.
Oh I’m just in that sort of mood today!
Vivek – tanjore temple ungalukku avlo cheap-aa pochchu! ellam kali kaalam
Prashanth – chaala thanks..na blog lo first telugu comment me is the happy!
Biofreak – you know, I’d love to blog in tamil..but I donno how to write in that font..I tried installing hazaar things, but no effect 
Nithya – yep, that’s exactly what I think will happen too… for added effects, lemme also add some sparks and smoke from the aforementioned microwave
Priya Iyer – excuse me, but..can you please add the ‘Iyer’ after your name..I was wondering when did I write such a comment!! and yes, I will spread the knowledge once I get it..
Princess – oh you bet..I wish its something explosive too..and I really wish someone tries it out!! that’ll make my day!
sure thing madam! point noted!
mikka nanri..16′um petru big life vazhunga [;)]
food is always open for experimentation, i have done sm stupid experiments in past which have been real junkies…
although i quite like soda and hate microwaved dishes, so a combo of both doesn’t sound appeasing
er, what is ‘16′um petru big life vazhunga’?
Desh – There is no such thing as stupid experiments when it comes to food – just bad-tasting ones
Priya Iyer – sorry..what I meant was ‘padhinaarum petru peru vaazhvu vaazhunga’ purinjidhono?
He he..Try that in your neighbour’s microwave and blame the kid who lives there!!….I ve heated water once….thank god i had forgotten about it and then took it out only after 15 minutes…
ippo purinjidhu! didn’t know about it earlier! had to ask mom and she explained to me.. thanks for adding to my tamil gyaan!
Onnum aagaadhu. It’ll go flat. And it’ll be hot. But nothing other than that. That is if the container is open. Airtight containeraa irundhaa vedichirum.
By the way, en kitta microwave illa. So I tried fanta on our plain old stove
Sharan – super idea! wish you were that neighbor kid
Priya Iyear – good good..
Manoj – really? did you try it in a microwave? on a stove it won’t matter.. coz there’s just heat.. but microwave is not like that no… can you try in your neighbor’s microwave and see?
If i were him…I would have tried it earlier at your place!!..(I’m anticipating a comment saying you don’t have a microwave :-p)
If i were him…I would have tried it earlier at your place!!..(I’m anticipating a comment saying you don’t have a microwave oven :-p)
that’s one very good why you’re not him!
You people are idiots. Nothing special happens, the soda gets hot just like water. Soda loses its carbonation faster at higher temperatures. If you bring it up to a boil the carbonation will be gone very quickly and you’ll be heating water or flavored sugar water. The microwaves don’t act on the gases at all.
Nemo – Many thanks for your expert answer But don’t you think my question is less idiotic than a person who takes the name of an animated fish to maintain anonymity and call others idiots on a blog where the rest of the readers seem to be having fun? welcome to TP, nevertheless!
Hey, I stumbled accross this thread when googling the CAUSE of a certain event that happened at work tonight (At Tim Hortons).
The other supervisor and I wanted Pepsi concentrate for some forgotten reason. Obviously if you boil the water out of Pepsi, you’d be left with the syrup, so I put the pepsi into a china mug and put it into the microwave… for 7 minutes. By that time only 1/4 the volume remained, and the cup was quite hot, so we let it cool down.
Deciding that we wanted more concentrated syrup, we put it in again, and after 58 seconds… BOOM! The microwave door flew open, and there was pepsi syrup all over the microwave and the wall opposite the door.
Being diligent amployees we decided that this must be investigated, and decided to verify the effect. So this time we heated the pepsi for 10 1/2 minutes, giving us a more concentrated mixture. The pepsi didn’t show any signs of sinister activity, just like the first time. So, we let it cool to room temperature, and put it back in.
63 seconds later.. yep, BOOM! The same thing happened, the soda exploded forcing the door open.
But it gets weird after that. We combined the concentrate that was left after the first two explosions, that is, the stuff that had already exploded. When put this in the microwave, all it did was cook into a big carbon sponge as the sugar became pure carbon (verified through a taste test.)
Both myself and the other supervisor are fairly well versed in science, and neither of us can explain it. We can rule out just about any theory that we had initially.
The carbonation shouldn’t affect it, because it should boil off before the liquid boils. As temperature increases, solubility of a gas in a liquid decreases.
It cannot be superheating, because you cannot super heat solutions. To superheat water, it must be distilled first. Indeed, if even a speck of dust is introduced into superheated water it will instantaneously boil in an explosion of water. (the sugar and other stuff in the pepsi would make it impossible.)
Of course, we have a whole lineup of variations of the experiment to try to determine the cause of this.
In summary, don’t assume that nothing happens just because you can rule one factor out… I though it impossible, but experimentation has shown otherways.
Wow! And I thought we just become soda-man if we tried that.
Hey, I just tried it, because I have tinusitis at the moment. I did it for like a minute or so, nothing really hapended, other then it tasted horrible.^^
Hmm i’ve googled what happens when you boil soda and i got here lol but i guess microwave same question,so i guess ill start a question within a question
1 | Aparna
July 3, 2007 at 9:57 pm
If you are gonna warm it for a few seconds, then nothing is likely to happen. I’ve tried it