Comparison Of Baking Soda And Citric Acid

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When Mrs. Reiersen lets a class full of 8th graders free to figure out what might be a mixture in a jar, the results can be interesting. Everyone has different ideas of what they think the mystery mixture might be, some are more common than others. It can be a challenge to rule out a bunch of different varieties of what a mysterious substance could be. The closest some 8th graders got to both chemical and physical properties of the mystery mixture was Baking Soda and Citric Acid. Comparing the physical properties of mystery mixture and baking soda and citric acid, the similarities of them are endless. Some of them include color, shape, size, texture, smell, and appearance. They both are white and stay white even if they are old and expired. They both appear to be powdery with little chunks in them the size of .26mm, some chunks bigger than others, which is the same as the mystery mixture’s chunks. The chunks feel rough and almost like hard as a rock. Some 8th graders believe that the chunks may be caused by the citric acid which is slightly bigger than powder. They also both harbor a strong, tart smell, which they think also be caused by the citric acid since baking soda has no smell. …show more content…
For instance, when you put baking soda and citric acid in a well tray, and then put the first drops of water into it, it doesn’t raise at all, which is the same as mystery mixture, and the bubbles in it start really big and gradually gets smaller until it is the size as a tip of a number 2 wooden pencil led. Baking soda and citric acid has a long chemical reaction time, 1 minute and 3 sec, and the mystery mixtures chemical reaction time was 1 minute and 4 seconds. When the chemical reaction is finished, both mystery mixture and baking soda and citric acid leaves no