Running head: MID TERM 1

Mid Term

Lexi Mazur

Ivy Tech Community College

MID TERM 2

Round One

What happens when you mix water with one half of an Alka-Seltzer tablet? My groups

claim to this question was, the balloon will inflate. We came up with this claim because we

knew what Alka-Seltzer does for the human body. Alka-Seltzer helps with heartburn, sour

stomach, body aches, headaches, etc (Marshall, 2009). So we figured that when you mix the

Alka-Seltzer with the water, that they would create a gas causing the balloon to inflate. Before

we attempted the experiment, we observed that the Alka-Seltzer is a solid. It can dissolve in

water and it can be crumbled when it is smashed.

Materials:

Cold water (71.8 degrees Fahrenheit)

4 Alka-Seltzer tablets
3 blue balloons
1 flask
100 mL graduated cylinder
Thermometer
Tape measure
Clock on the wall

Procedures:

Fill the 100 mL graduated cylinder with 30 mL of water at 71.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
Poor the 30 mL of 71.8 degrees Fahrenheit water into flask.
Cut the Alka-Seltzer tablet in half.
Insert one half of the tablet into the balloon.
Crush the half tablet inside the balloon until the tablet is completely crumbled.
Put the opening of the balloon around the top of the flask without spilling any of the

Alka-Seltzer yet.
Now that the balloon is on the flask, dump the Alka-Seltzer crumbles into the flask.
Record your observations.
MID TERM 3

My group decided to measure the balloons size at two minutes and then again at four

minutes.

Evidence:

2 minutes 4 minutes

Trial #1 17 cm 17.2 cm

Trial #2 16.5 cm 16.8 cm

Trial #3 16 cm 16.5 cm

After reviewing our evidence, we came to the conclusion that our claim was supported.

The balloon inflated each time we did each of our trials.

Round Two

For this round, my group and I decided that we wanted to try to use Vanilla Coke instead

of water. What will happen when you mix Vanilla Coke with Alka-Seltzer? Our claim was that

we thought the balloon would inflate twice as much because of the Vanilla Cokes carbonation.

Carbonation is a type of gas that is located in a liquid such as Coke, Pepsi, etc (Vanilla

Coke,2016). We thought that since the Alka-Seltzer creates carbon dioxide, that it would make

the balloon inflate twice as much because of the Vanilla Cokes carbonation on top of that

(Marshall, 2009). We observed that the Alka-Seltzer is a solid that can dissolve in a liquid and

can be crumbled when it is smashed.

Materials:
MID TERM 4

Vanilla Coke (70.5 degrees Fahrenheit)

4 Alka-Seltzer tablets

3 blue balloons

1 flask

100 mL graduated cylinder

Thermometer

Tape measure

Clock on the wall

Procedure:

Fill the 100 mL graduated cylinder with 30 mL of Vanilla Coke at 70.5 degrees
Fahrenheit.

Poor the 30 mL of 70.5 degrees Fahrenheit Vanilla Coke into flask.

Cut the Alka-Seltzer tablet in half.

Insert one half of the tablet into the balloon.

Crush the half tablet inside the balloon until the tablet is completely crumbled.

Put the opening of the balloon around the top of the flask without spilling any of the
Alka-Seltzer yet.

Now that the balloon is on the flask, dump the Alka-Seltzer crumbles into the flask.

Record your observations.

Evidence:

2 minutes 4 minutes
MID TERM 5

Trial #1 18.4 cm 19 cm

Trial #2 19 cm 19.8 cm

Trial #3 17.5 cm 18 cm

After reviewing our evidence, we came to the conclusion that our claim was not

supported. The Vanilla Coke and the Alka-Seltzer did not create enough gas to inflate the balloon

twice as much as the water in round one. The results that we got in this round (round two) did

increase by at least one centimeter each time though. This is because of the carbonation in the

Vanilla Coke (Vanilla Coke,2016).

Round Three

In this round, my group and I decided to mix Glacier Freeze Gatorade with the Alka-

Seltzer instead of water. This time, we did not think that the balloon would inflate. We thought

this because we did not think that any type of Gatorade had any carbonation in it to cause the

balloon to inflate (Lose Weight,2015). We also thought that it would overpower the Alka-

Seltzer causing the balloon not to inflate. We observed that the Alka-Seltzer is a solid that can

dissolve in water and can be crumbled when it is smashed.

Materials:

Glacier Freeze Gatorade (70.3 degrees Fahrenheit)

4 Alka-Seltzer tablets

3 blue balloons

1 flask
MID TERM 6

100 mL graduated cylinder

Thermometer

Tape measure

Clock on the wall

Procedure:

Fill the 100 mL graduated cylinder with 30 mL of Glacier Freeze Gatorade at 70.3
degrees Fahrenheit.

Poor the 30 mL of 70.3 degrees Fahrenheit Glacier Freeze Gatorade into flask.

Cut the Alka-Seltzer tablet in half.

Insert one half of the tablet into the balloon.

Crush the half tablet inside the balloon until the tablet is completely crumbled.

Put the opening of the balloon around the top of the flask without spilling any of the
Alka-Seltzer yet.

Now that the balloon is on the flask, dump the Alka-Seltzer crumbles into the flask.

Record your observations.

Evidence:

2 minutes 4 minutes

Trial #1 16.5 cm 17.5 cm

Trial #2 16 cm 17 cm
MID TERM 7

Trial #3 17.5 cm 18 cm

After reviewing the evidence of this trial with the Glacier Freeze Gatorade, my group and

I came to the conclusion that our claim was not supported. Our claim was not supported because

the balloon did inflate. Since the evidence shows that the balloon increased in size by at least half

of a centimeter every two minutes, I feel like if we let the balloon continue to six minutes, the

balloon would have grown another half of a centimeter at least. The Glacier Freeze Gatorade

includes: Water, Sucrose, dextrose, Citric Acid, Natural Flavor, Salt, Sodium Citrate,

Monopotassium Phosphate, Modified Food Starch, Glycerol Ester of Rosin, and Blue 1 as the

main ingredients (Lose Weight,2015). The acid is what mixes with the Alka-Seltzer and causes

the balloon to inflate.

Reference Page
MID TERM 8

Lose weight & improve your health with a real food diet | Fooducate. (n.d.). Retrieved October

13, 2016, from http://www.fooducate.com/app#!page=product

"Vanilla Coke | Nutritional Information and Ingredients for Coca-Cola Vanilla | Coca-Cola GB."

Vanilla Coke | Nutritional Information and Ingredients for Coca-Cola Vanilla | Coca-Cola

GB. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2016.

Marshall, ByHelen. "Alka-seltzer Original." Netdoctor. N.p., 2015. Web. 13 Oct. 2016.