What kind of household materials can I use in my science experiment to prove that coca cola can be a cleaner?

Question

What kind of household materials can I use in my science experiment to prove that coca cola can be a cleaner?

Answer 1

Get some dirty 1 penny and 2 pence pieces. (The brown ones. Not sure what you have in America, but any money with copper in it, which tarnishes when handled.)

Fill a cup with the cola and drop the pennies in it. Wait about an hour or so. When you remove and rinse the money it will be shiny and copper coloured again.

Answer 2

Clothes, washer and a dryer with grease. The acid in the coca cola makes grease go away along with laundry detergent. I was a mechanic in the army and this worked with simple green, detergent and coca cola.

Answer 3

Coca Cola contains phosphoric acid, H3PO4. Besides eating holes in people's teeth, this acid can also remove hard water deposits:

2H3PO4 + 3CaCO3 -> Ca3(PO4)2 + 3CO2 + 3H2O

Hard water deposits are the result of hard water evaporating and leaving lime (CaCO3) behind as a white crust. This material is easy to generate by just boiling about a cup of ordinary tap water. As the last of the water boils away, a white material ought to be left. This will not rince away with water. However, if Coca Cola is poured into the pot and allowed to sit several minutes, the pot ought to rince out completely clean. If no white crust forms when the water boils away, it demonstrates the tap water is very "soft", or low in dissolved CaCO3. This water can be artificially hardened if some limestone is added, allowed to sit overnight, filtered and then boiled. This experiment will not work if a water softener is connected to the water line. The softener turns Calcium carbonate into Sodium carbonate. The Sodium carbonate will rince away with ordinary water.

FYI: ketchsup is also a great cleaner for hard water deposits. The active chemical is Acetic acid and this forms Calcium acetate, which is very water soluable and rinces away.