Effect of Temperature in Experiments Involving Carbonated Beverages

Carbonated beverages have long provided chemical educators and other teachers of science with an easy-to-obtain system that connects to several physicochemical concepts. For example, many educators have devised experiments to determine the pressure of CO2 contained in commercial carbonated beverages, but the role of temperature in such measurements has not been explored in detail. The experiments presented here describe a simple way to measure the pressure of CO2 in carbonated beverages, and how to convert such pressures measured at different temperatures to a standard value so that comparisons of measurements obtained at different temperatures can be made. The results provide insights into other experiments that involve carbonated beverages.