Pop rocks are made of sugar, lactose, corn syrup, and flavoring. When they reach their boiling point, the are combined with carbon-dioxide gas under high pressure. This causes little carbon dioxide bubbles to form. When the candy is put in your mouth, the little gas bubbles are released, causing the popping sensation.
When baking soda and vinegar are combined, it causes a chemical reaction. The products release carbon dioxide, a formerly unfound element in the two substances.
Lab Investigation:
We did a lab comparing the reaction between pop rocks and soda blowing up a balloon, and baking soda and vinegar blowing up a balloon. In the pop rocks test, there were quite a few obstacles. The balloons were very small, making it hard to get the pop rocks in, and making it difficult to get it around the balloon. Once the pop rocks were dumped into the balloon, not much of a reaction occurred. The balloon inflated very slightly. The balloon could also take some fault for this, because it was very small and not stretchy, and it wasn't easy to blow up.
The combination of pop rocks and soda is a physical reaction. Because both ingredients already contained trapped carbon dioxide. When they were combined, they just released that carbon dioxide that was trapped, not created a new product.
In the baking soda and vinegar test, the results were much better. The balloon problem was still apparent, but it didn't seem to make as much of a problem. The first balloon we tried to put on the bottle broke, and the second one also broke, but still worked. Once the baking soda was added, the reaction was quick. It blew up the ballon within a couple of seconds. The balloon grew to a much greater size than the pop rocks and soda test.
Variables:
There were several variables in this experiment that may have varied the results. The first variable that may have affected the experiment is the balloon. It is possible that the balloon pushed the air back down when it couldn't inflate anymore, and the reaction wasn't violent enough to inflate the stiff balloon. Another variable may have been the soda. Different types of soda may have made a difference to what the reaction was because of the different ingredients.
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