FYFD

Tag: effervescence

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    Carbonation in Space

    Astronauts don’t typically drink soda or other carbonated beverages while in space. The reason is probably apparent if you watch this new video of an effervescent tablet in water on the space station (or, you could watch the older classic one from Don Pettit). Unlike on Earth, where the carbon dioxide bubbles are buoyant and rise to the surface, the bubbles in a fluid in microgravity are randomly distributed. Those few bubbles that happen to be located along the edge of the water sphere will sometimes burst, creating the halo of tiny droplets you see in the video. In the case of sodas, though, the bubbles’ behavior creates a foamy mess, and, after ingestion, the bubbles are stuck travelling through the astronaut’s digestive system instead of getting burped out. Sounds rather unpleasant to me. (Video credit: NASA; submitted by entropy-perturbation and buckitdrop)

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    LAST CALL: Help us do some science! I’ve teamed up with researcher Paige Brown Jarreau to create a survey of FYFD readers. By participating, you’ll be helping me improve FYFD and contributing to novel academic research on the readers of science blogs. It should only take 10-15 minutes to complete. You can find the survey here.

  • Beverage Bubbles Bursting

    Beverage Bubbles Bursting

    Fizzy drinks like soda and champagne have many bubbles which rise to the surface before bursting. When the film separating the bubble and the air drains and bursts, it leaves a millimeter-sized cavity that collapses on itself. That collapse creates an upward jet of fluid which can break into tiny aerosol droplets that disperse the aroma and flavor of the drink. Similar bubble-bursting events occur in sea spray and industrial applications, too. Researchers find that droplet ejection depends on bubble geometry and fluid properties such as viscosity. More viscous liquids, for example, generate smaller and faster droplets. Learn more and see videos of bubble-bursts at Newswise. (Image credit: E. Ghabache et al.)

  • Champagne Bubble Physics

    Champagne Bubble Physics

    Champagne is well-known for its effervescence, but its tiny bubbles do more than affect your sensation when sipping. Champagne bubbles form when carbon dioxide dissolved in the wine nucleates along imperfections in the glass. Buoyancy causes them to flow upwards, growing as they pull more carbon dioxide from the surrounding champagne. When the bubbles reach the surface, they pop, sending an almost imperceptible fountain of tiny droplets into the air, as seen in the photo above. You can sometimes feel the droplets if you hold a glass near your face. The droplets released from the bursting champagne bubbles spread the aroma of the wine, imparting additional flavor through our olfactory sense. (Photo credit: F. Beaumont et al.)

  • The Science of Champagne

    The Science of Champagne

    Champagne owes much of its allure to its tiny bubbles. Unlike other wines, champagne undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle, during which the yeasts in the wine consume sugars and produce carbon dioxide, which dissolves into the wine. When opened, the carbon dioxide can begin to escape. Bubbles form in the glass around imperfections, either due to intentional etching of the glass or impurities left behind by cleaning. Once formed, trails of bubbles rise to the surface, swelling as more dissolved carbon dioxide is absorbed into each bubble. The bubbles then cluster near the surface of the champagne, occasionally popping and creating a flower-like distortion of the surrounding bubbles. The gases within the bubbles contains higher concentrations of aromatic chemicals than the surrounding wine, and the bursting of each bubble propels tiny droplets of these aromatics upwards, carrying the scent of the champagne to the drinker. For more beautiful champagne photos, I recommend this LuxeryCulture article; for more on the science of champagne, see Chemistry World’s coverage. Happy 2014! (Image credits: G. Liger-Belair et al.)

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    Champagne Science

    Today many a glass of champagne will be raised in honor of the end of one year and the beginning of a new. This French wine, known for its bubbly effervescence, is full of fascinating physics. During secondary fermentation of champagne, yeast in the wine consume sugars and excrete carbon dioxide gas, which dissolves in the liquid. Since the bottle containing the wine is corked, this increases the pressure inside the bottle, and this pressure is released when the cork is popped. Once champagne is in the glass, the dissolved carbon dioxide will form bubbles on flaws in the glass, which may be due to dust, scratches, or even intentional marks from manufacturing. These bubbles rise to the surface, expanding as they do so because the hydrodynamic pressure of the surrounding wine decreases with decreasing depth. At the surface, the bubbles burst, creating tiny crowns that collapse into Worthington jets, which can propel droplets upward to be felt by the drinker. For more on the physics of champagne, check out Gerard Liger-Belair’s book Uncorked: The Science of Champagne and/or Patrick Hunt’s analysis. Happy New Year! (Video credit: AFP/Gerard Liger-Belair)