Coke and off-brand colas will quickly remove the tarnish. Just don’t drink the coke afterward. Coke contains phosphoric acid that cleans the oxides. Try a variety of citrus juices to see which works best or simply let your pennies soak in lemon juice.
To begin with, youll want to find a handful of dirty pennies. My kids had fun doing this, raiding their piggy banks to find some dirty pennies.
This is what the pennies look like sitting at the bottom of the glass. Now comes the hardest part of the experiment – the waiting. Let the pennies sit in the soda overnight. Keep it out of reach with a note to be sure no one drinks the soda.
Dry the pennies with a paper towel. As you are drying them, youll notice that rubbing results in some of the dirt coming off the pennies.
Once you have the pennies, pour some of the soda into the glass. About half way filled is fine. If you have older kids, you can let them pour the soda. Younger kids might need a bit of help. Drop the pennies into the soda.
Before we started our cleaning pennies experiment, I talked to my kids about what they thought would happen when we placed pennies into some soda. One of my daughters thought that the pennies would get dissolved while my other daughter thought the soda would make the pennies dirtier. So we did a little experiment to see what would actually happen.
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Fizz! Pop! That bubbly stuff might make your taste buds happy, but what does it do to common household objects?
How does a penny change when it’s left in a container of soda overnight?
- 2 cans of cola
- 5 dull pennies
- Food storage container
- White piece of paper
- Camera
- Notebook and paper
- Give your pennies a drink! Collect some old, dull and tarnished pennies for this experiment. Find a container that’s large enough that you can lay the pennies side by side.
- Create a hypothesis, your best guess about what is going to happen. What do you think will happen to the pennies when you leave them in cola bath overnight?
- Take a picture of your pennies. Line them up in order according to the dates on the penny. Take a photo of them with a piece of white paper as the background.
- Now your pennies are ready to take a bath. Line them up in the container, and pour the cola over them so that they’re sitting in a cola bath.
- Before bed, come back to your experiment and flip the pennies over.
- Good morning! Now it’s time to take another look at your pennies. Take the pennies out of their bath and wash them off. Line them up in the same order you did before you bathed them, and take another photo. Has anything changed?
After a day in the cola bath, the pennies will be very shiny.
There are lots of stories about the amazing powers of soda and the not-so-amazing effects of soda on your body. Some are true—others are not.
So why can soda, particularly sugary colas, make pennies shiny? It’s all because of a chemical reaction. In a chemical reaction, two different chemicals change each other. Part of the reason the pennies change has to do with the pennies, and part of the reason has to do with the cola.
Pennies are made out of copper, and after a while, copper gets dull. This is because the copper in the pennies reacts with air to create copper oxide. Yes, there are chemical reactions going on all over the place! Copper oxide looks less shiny than plain copper.
If you had to describe the taste of cola, you might describe it as tangy. Thats because cola has acid in it – phosphoric acid, to be precise. Most colas have a pH of 2.5-3.5. The scale for pH is a way to determine how acidic something is. It goes from 0 to 14, and everything under 7 is acidic. This means that cola is quite acidic! Vinegar has a pH of 2.5, making it just a little more acidic than some colas.
When the copper oxide (the pennies) and the phosphoric acid (the cola) get together in the bath, the acid reacts with the copper oxide on the pennies and dissolves it. That’s why the pennies get shiny.
What else could you put into the cola bath? If you’d like to try something that’s a little more like your teeth, both limestone landscaping rocks and chalk have a lot of calcium in them. What do you think will happen to them when they sit in a cola bath overnight?
Coin and Coke Experiment | Cleaning Pennies | Coke Zero Vs Coke Original | Which cleans better?
FAQ
How long does it take to clean pennies in Coke?
What will Coke do to a penny?
What cleans pennies the fastest?
Which liquid will clean a penny better?
Does Coke clean coins?
Coke is a highly acidic carbonated drink that has excellent coin cleaning properties. Each serving of Coke contains 2.8 parts of phosphoric acid, which is highly effective in dissolving stains, grime, and tarnishing off coins. You only need to soak your coin in Coke for 5-15 minutes to see desired results.
How to clean a penny with coke?
If you’re wondering how to clean a penny with coke, the method is very similar to the vinegar method. Find a small container made from ceramic, glass or plastic and fill it with coke – enough to submerge a penny. Place the penny in the coke and leave it for around 5 minutes.
How do you clean copper pennies?
Soak copper pennies in a mixture of white vinegar and salt for 10-15 minutes, then rinse. Alternatively, use ketchup for 5 minutes of Coke for 4-5 hours. Or, rub copper or zinc pennies with an eraser or a baking soda paste to remove grime and restore shine. Do not use acidic cleaners like vinegar on pennies from 1982 or after.
Can you use ketchup & Cola to clean pennies?
Believe it or not, ketchup and cola can also be used to clean pennies. The acidity and mild abrasive properties of these condiments can help to remove dirt and tarnish. To use this method, simply pour some ketchup or cola into a bowl, place the pennies in the liquid, and let them soak for no more than 5 minutes.