About My Experiment

Hypothesis: Dark soda (like Coke) is more corrosive than light soda (like Sprite).

Materials:

Coke
Sprite
2 human teeth
2 tarnished pennies
2 long nails
2 short nails
2 chicken neckbones
10 containers
1 measuring tape

Procedure:

Each object was placed in a separate container and covered with either Sprite or Coke.  Changes in objects were observed and recorded for 5 days.

Result:  Hypothesis was correct.

Cool Facts

Teeth vs Soda - What Soda Does to Your Teeth infographic

Day 1

Nails Day 1

Teeth Day 1

Pennies Day 1

Chicken Day 1

Day 2

Teeth Day 2

Observations:
Sprite:  Unchanged
Coke:  The tooth is significantly discolored.  It is brown in appearance.

Nails Day 2

Observations:
Sprite:  Both the longer nail and the shorter nails are unchanged.
Coke:  The longer nail is unchanged.  The shorter nail shows some signs of corrosion.

Pennies Day 2

Observations:
Sprite:  A small amount of tarnish was removed.
Coke:  A significant amount of tarnish was removed.  Penny is noticeably brighter.

Chicken Day 2

Observations:

Sprite:  Chicken is . . . wet.

Coke:  Chicken is . . . disgusting.  Chicken has turned brown.  Meat seems slightly disintegrated.

Day 3

Teeth Day 3

Observations:  

Sprite:  Unchanged
Coke:  More discolored than at last observation.

Nails Day 3

Observations:

Sprite:  Unchanged

Coke:  Long nail seems unchanged.  Surface of smaller nail seems slightly more eroded. 

Pennies Day 3

Observations:

Sprite:  Unchanged

Coke:  Penny is brighter and cleaner than at last observation.

Chicken Day 3

Observations:

Sprite:  Slight odor. 

Coke:  Flesh continues to discolor.  Slight disintegration.

Day 4

Teeth Day 4

Observations:

Sprite:  No observable change

Coke:  Tooth appears darker than at last observation.

Nails Day 4

Observations:

Sprite:  No change

Coke:  Little change in longer nail.  Surface of smaller nail seems slightly more corroded.  

Pennies Day 4

Observations:

Sprite:  Small amount of tarnish rubs off when I dried the penny.

Coke:  Penny is noticeably brighter and shinier.

Chicken Day 4

Observations:

Sprite:  Slight odor.  Flesh has slightly grayish color.

Coke:  Flesh has disintegrated since last observation. 

Day 5

Nails Day 5

Observations:

Sprite:  No observable change.

Coke:  The nail is beginning to show signs of corrosion.  Surface is slightly smaller.

Teeth Day 5

Observations:

Sprite:  No observable change.

Coke:  Continues to darken.  Enamel seems softer.

Pennies Day 5

Observations:

Sprite:  No observable change.

Coke:  Most of the tarnish is gone.  The penny is bright and shiny.

Chicken Day 5

Observations:

Sprite:  Chicken has slight odor and a grayish tint.

Coke:  Chicken is rotting and putrid.  Flesh has deteriorated.

Conclusions

The hypothesis was correct.


Coke:  The objects covered by Coke were impacted by the corrosive effect of the phosphoric acid the beverage contains.

• Teeth:  Badly discolored in just 24 hours.  By Day 5, the tooth was much darker and the enamel was soft.
• Long nail:  No change was apparent on Days 1-4.  On Day 5, the surface of the nail was beginning to corrode.
• Short nail:  The Coke definitely ate away part of the surface of the nail.
• Penny:  The penny was very tarnished on Day 1.  By Day 5 the penny was bright and shiny.

Sprite:  Little change could be observed in the items objects covered by Coke.

Conclusion:  This stuff really will rot your teeth out!