Applied Fizzics Field Notes

We've spent a lot of time talking about how CO₂ gets into and out of solution. This week, we decided to close the loop. First, we measured the pressure inside a fresh bottle of Champagne. Then we opened it, drove out the CO₂, and asked a wonderfully simple question: Can we put the bubbles back?

In Field Notes #7, we tested the old bit of barroom wisdom that tapping a shaken can of beer before opening it will keep it from spewing, and we posted the video on YouYube. Several viewers averred that we had tapped our beers incorrectly. So we redid the experiment. What we found was something very unexpected about bubbles and foam.

In this edition of Field Notes, we show how forced carbonation works, with a simple kitchen scale. Wait—you can weigh carbonation? You can, and the results may surprise you.

In this edition of Field Notes, we do a deep dive into the physics of spewing foam from shaken cans of beer. The answer is not what you think. And does tapping the can before opening help? We give the definitive answer to this urban legend.

In Field Notes #6, we explain why you can't keep CO₂ molecules in solution with any gas in the headspace except CO₂. We present a simulator that explains this fact at the molecular level. From this, an important principle in physics called Henry's Law follows directly. The same principles outlined here also explain the physics behind forced carbonation.

In this edition, we're going to discover one of the most important principles in all of physics, Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures. We're going to see that that it explains how to keep the fizz in Champagne, and a great deal more. We present the concept of Dalton's Law with our Applied Fizzics molecular simulator that demonstrates how equilibrium works at the molecular level. When we are done, you will understand that no amount of air, Argon, or any other gas can keep CO₂ in solution except CO₂.

In this edition of Field Notes, we come back to our discussion of Champagne glassware. In particular, we re-examine the “80/20 rule,” the assertion that 80% of the CO₂ in a glass of Champagne is lost through molecular diffusion at the surface, and only 20% is lost through visible bubbles. Not so fast, our readers said. We then turn to a discussion of the effect of temperature on the solubility of CO₂. We present an interactive molecular simulator that allows the reader to investigate this dependency interactively.