Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: paul.fr on 21/11/2007 15:05:47
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would it be possible to replace carbon dioxide, with helium in a can of coke? If it is possible, would i have a high pitched voice after drinking it?
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would it be possible to replace carbon dioxide, with helium in a can of coke? If it is possible, would i have a high pitched voice after drinking it?
He is much less soluble than CO2, in water; you should increase pressure a lot, to have the same amount of gas: cans would become dangerous!
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Helium is also quite expensive, as it is not nearly as readily available as CO2.
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Helium is not a renewable resource too but that's not the major point here.
Does your voice change when you drink cola with CO2 in it?
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Helium is not a renewable resource too
What do you mean by that?
Helium is a consequence of alpha radiation (e.g. from uranium decay). The rate of renewal may be slow, but it is renewed (you can probably accelerate in by building lots of nuclear power stations).
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Does your voice change when you drink cola with CO2 in it?
only when it goes down the "wrong" hole and i gag whilst trying to talk.
anyway, the point of the question was: could it be done, and would it change the pitch of your voice?
if both answers are yes, then i could see a whole range of new coke products...what about coke with nitrous oxide instead of carbon dioxide...slogan, fancy a coke...are you having a laugh!
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anyway, the point of the question was: could it be done, and would it change the pitch of your voice?
if both answers are yes, then i could see a whole range of new coke products...what about coke with nitrous oxide instead of carbon dioxide...slogan, fancy a coke...are you having a laugh!
There has been some comment to the effect that it would be difficult to implement for Helium (maybe easier with NO); but the point is that in either case, as in the case of CO2, you are unlikely to breath enough of it to make a noticeable impact (since the CO2 is only a small fraction of the coke, so if you were breathing in that much of it, you would be breathing in far more coke, and beginning to drown in it).
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There has been some comment to the effect that it would be difficult to implement for Helium (maybe easier with NO); but the point is that in either case, as in the case of CO2, you are unlikely to breath enough of it to make a noticeable impact (since the CO2 is only a small fraction of the coke, so if you were breathing in that much of it, you would be breathing in far more coke, and beginning to drown in it).
could you not fill the can two thirds with the coke, and the rest with gas?
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could you not fill the can two thirds with the coke, and the rest with gas?
You could (I doubt that most of that CO2 would be dissolved), but the bottom line remains that one tends to drink coke rather than sniff it (depending ofcourse on the type of coke involved - the other kind one may sniff, but not for the CO2).
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"Helium is not a renewable resource too
What do you mean by that?
Helium is a consequence of alpha radiation (e.g. from uranium decay). The rate of renewal may be slow, but it is renewed (you can probably accelerate in by building lots of nuclear power stations)."
In that sense oil is a renewable resource- all we have to do is wait millions of years for the stuff to form again.
In a more practical sense He is becoming scarce- there was a shortage a few years back.
To make a difference you would need a fair fraction of a lungfull in each can. I'm not sure there would be any room for anything to drink.
Please don't try this with NO
I wouldn't recommend N2O but at least it won't dissolve the tin like NO probably would.
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Helium is a consequence of alpha radiation (e.g. from uranium decay). The rate of renewal may be slow, but it is renewed (you can probably accelerate in by building lots of nuclear power stations).
In that sense oil is a renewable resource- all we have to do is wait millions of years for the stuff to form again.
In a more practical sense He is becoming scarce- there was a shortage a few years back.
Similar, but not the same - but, yes, it does highlight the whole irrelevance of the notion of renewability - nothing is renewable, or everything is renewable (OK, I suppose you may argue that Uranium is not renewable on this planet, since it is only normally formed in the core of stars, so the nuclear industry is consuming a non-renewable, while the oil industry is consuming a renewable, even if the rate of renewal is somewhat limited).
The issue as to whether we consume something at a rate that is greater than its rate of renewal is as much a function of out rate of consumption as it is about whether the matter is renewable or not.
As you say, consuming He in all soft drinks might somewhat exceed the natural rate of renewal for He, but that is not to say that He is not a renewable, only that all renewables have their limits. On the other hand, as I suggested above, I would imagine it is possible to stimulate alpha emission within a nuclear reactor, and this may create more helium for our consumption.
If we ever get fusion reactors to work, this will ofcourse radically increase the amount of helium we can produce (maybe a few underground hydrogen bombs might be detonated in the interim in order to increase helium production).