Hi,

A Simple question :)

Why does carbonated liquid (lemonade, soda, tonic, coke etc) fizz more
when poured over ice ?

I am guessing it could be the temperature difference, maybe the
bubbles get cold and go 'ouch' when they hit the ice :)

Alex.

Dear quacky-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question.

First you must understand what carbonated soda is. Carbonation is
created when chilled carbon dioxide, under pressure, is infused into a
liquid. The result is a fizzy drink because the cabon dioxide
molecules are essentially trapped in a dissolved state within the
liquid. The agitation caused by the change of pressure (opening it and
releasing pressure, shaking it, exposing it to air, pouring it, etc)
releases these molecules and they aggressively rise to the top in the
form of bubbles.

There are two basic factors that cause the stimulation of a carbonated
beverage when it is poured over ice:

First, the carbonation is exposed to air as it tumbles across the ice.
When you pur the drink out it is thinned and takes on much more air
than it does when it simply sits in the bottle. This allows the
bubbles to gather more air and grow larger and more numerous and the
end result is a sizzling, bubbly froth. You can experiment with this
by pouring soda over ice and making note of how aggressive the bubbles
are. Now pour your soda into an empty glass and drop the ice directly
into it. You will see that there is big a difference in how aggressive
the bubbles are in these two experiments because the liquid was much
thinner in the first example than in the second.

Second, no matter how clean you might think your ice is, the water it
is made from contains a certain amount of impurities (picked up in
your freezer, from handling, or from impure water). These impurities
nucleate, or add more volume to the carbon dioxide bubbles thereby
increasing their size and pressure. The bubbles grow larger, pop
louder and rise to the top faster than they would if no impurities
were present. To experiment with this, pour carbonated soda over ice.
Then take the same amount of ice, wash it, and pour carbonated soda
over that. You will see a significant difference in the amount of
bubbles between the washed ice and the unwashed ice.



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Soda

Carbonated

Fizz

Ice

Exactly what i was after, thanks :)

The notion that carbonated liquids 'fizz more' when poured over ice is an illusion.

What happens is that because ice is slippy, the bubbles go skidding around.

For a bubble, it's actually great fun, equivalent to humans ski-ing or skating.

Obviously, the bubbles want their fun to last as long as poss.

Who wouldn't?

The cooling of the liquid when poured over the ice would also account
for some of the release of the dissolved carbon dioxide. Just the
opposite of what happens, for instance, when heating a liquid allows
more of a substance to be dissolved in it -- think of how more sugar
dissolves in hot tea than in cold tea.