Cola in space

It's a matter of pressure, not gravity, right? So it would still spew - but it would spew into infinity - and beyond.

Not quite what I had in mind. I was thinking, when you look at a glass of Cola, the bubbles are being displaced upwards. In zero grav, are they going to stay still? Expand? Explode? I favour Expand in all directions, but if contained, then what? Do the bubbles of gas keep growing? AAAaaaarrrrgggg!

Well, that's an interesting question. Assume you pop the top on a bottle of cola - the release of pressure will still cause the gas to come out of the liquid, but without gravity there's no reason for it to float to the top. I guess pressure would push the bubbles to the inside surface area of the bottle? Or would the bubbles be evenly distributed? Would you cola never go flat? I'm guessing that the gas would still find it's way out the top of the bottle somehow.

Do they have Cokes on the space station?

With all the bubbles in the cola ,I'm afraid there will be more than just gas escaping from the bottle.

It shouldn't matter what the orientation of the container is. Bubbles, being much less dense than the liquid matrix, would float "up", up being the liquid - ambient gaseous interface, regardless of gravity.

things only sort themselves by density in a gravitational or equivalent field. In zero G = no sorting at all. at 10,000 g in a centrifuge = good sorting.

So whatever was closest to the place you opened would russh out of the can, be it fluid or a mixture.

In this case it would be fluid for the most part that would also outgas dissolved CO2 = everthing is soon very sticky

And explode? Like a self-shaking pop?

Great question. I think I have a good guess. In zero G the forces that are in play will be surface tension. We have seen the videos of astronauts playing with water in space. It tends to form into spheres, but any disturbance will cause the water to oscillate or break up into more spheres of water. The surface tension keeps the water molecules together.

If you were to inject an air bubble into the sphere of water it would probably work itself out of the sphere in a few seconds and the water returns to its spherical shape. Air trapped inside the water will tend to become a spherical bubble. The surrounding water would create a surface tension on the air bubble since the water will want to stick together by surface tension. This would compress the air very slightly. The effect would be very much like a soap bubble, but the wall thickness of the water around the air would likely be much larger. Eventually, the wall of a soap bubble gets breached and the air escapes and the soap is scattered into a myriad of particles.

I would expect that the surface tension pressing against the air bubble would drive it out in one direction or another in the shortest path to the water's edge because it will not be perfectly uniform in all directions. If you could get the air directly in the center of the sphere and the sphere had no oscillations, it might remain there, but even the slightest air currents would cause the water sphere to oscillate and place unequal pressure on the air bubble.

So, the bubble or bubbles will very soon be driven out of the water, or Coke, which is simply colored sugar water.

which is simply colored sugar water.

Simply carbonated colored sugar water.

It would grow out of the bottle as a mixture of fluid and CO2 bubbles. some coalescence, of course, and fill the container, if this case the spaceship.

So I would advise caution ...:)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cola_wars

Hi Anonymous Hero, I agree with the picture you have created, but here's another thought. When you somehow get the coke out of the bottle and into a 'ball', if you could make the ball spin slowly (slow enough for surface tension to hold it together*) then you would create a slight pressure gradient and cause the bubbles to come to the central axis, maybe. Davo

* I guess it would be an "ellipsphere" (?) rather than a sphere.

That's a good thought, but wouldn't the bubbles just escape through the axis of rotation because there would be less pressure there?

Nick

Great question! I think we should propose it as an experiment for NASA to answer...

Hi PibMak. This one you could always ask NASA to to try out. Spencer.

Hi There- actually, NASA ~has~ tried this out. Two groups of researchers and engineers at BioServe Space Technologies and WCSAR have been building small locker-sized experiments for the space shuttle mid-deck for about 15 years. One of these organizations (can't remember which one) built a Coca-Cola dispensation machine in the mid-90's for Low Earth Orbit, specifically to determine what it's like for astronauts to indulge in space.

Do you mean atmosphere-less? Do you mean boil? React???? Do you mean, come into existence (as we know it?)

How would Cola, as a charged liquid, react in weightless conditions?

The question seems clear and concise to me.

Assumption 1: Cola is cola by virtue of being a charged liquid--you specified as much. To say it reacts means it much have been in other than weightless condition(s) at such time as it could react--there must have been a preceding action by it or something else as cause of reaction by it. As to weightlessness, one might have responded, simply put it in your glass and throw it up into the air, and see how it reacts. It also was not specified whether the cola would be within or without a sealed container when the condition to which it would "react" would suddenly happen. So a less ambiguous wondering might, for example, have said something like:

How would cola react if all confinements--including gravity--were suddenly removed? Hope this clears up my post--and remember, I was just being playful; hoping only for a chuckle, not to give offense.

I seem to remember seeing that they took some Pepsi up on a few space shuttle missions - they had to come up with some goofy container to contain the pressure and a nozzle to drink from. I think they abandoned the whole project because of the mess. I saw somewhere on the Internet where they did some tatse-tests in space with Coke and Pepsi, but I don't remember ever seeing Coke in any of the press at the time.

I have the answer, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34b4WFe2t9U

about two minutes into the video.

Once again, NASA research pays off.

Well, that's interesting, I wouldn't have expected the bubbles to stay inside so well. I knew they would just float inside, but the effect is just amazing.

Makes you wonder what would be going on in your stomach.

Brilliant! (and a bit creepy) Surface tension rules...........