Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: Kitty on 11/04/2014 17:06:37
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Kitty asked the Naked Scientists:
My dad wanted to know why champagne stays fizzy if you put a teaspoon in the top of the bottle once you take the cork out.
What do you think?
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It's the same thing as putting a screwcap back onto an opened bottle of any other carbonated beverage. If the seal is air-tight, the carbon dioxide has nowhere to go, so the beverage doesn't lose its fizz as quickly (it also depends on how much headspace there is--if half of the beverage is gone, then there is room inside the bottle for carbon dioxide to escape out of the beverage without leaving the bottle). The seal made with a teaspoon is unlikely to be as good as that formed with the original cork, so it will still go flat, just not as quickly.
This, of course, is assuming the neck of the bottle is actually stoppered. Just dangling a teaspoon in the top of the bottle doesn't do anything.
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"My dad wanted to know why champagne stays fizzy... "
I'd like to know why he thinks it actually does.
Has he checked?