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Article: Carbonated oceans.
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- April 1, 2009
- Author:
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[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
OPEN a bottle of soda pop. The gas that bubbles out is carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]), the same gas you exhale when you breathe. Now take a sip. The soda has an acidic bite, doesn't it? This is because the carbon dioxide in it reacts with water to form carbonic acid. Yep, that's why we call soda a "carbonated" beverage.
As its name implies, carbonic acid is really an acid. Acids are chemicals that add hydrogen ions ([H.sup.+]) to water. In solution, carbonic acid breaks down into bicarbonate and carbonate, releasing [H.sup.+] into the water (see sidebar, "Carbonate Chemistry 101," opposite page). It's the acid that gives soda its ...