Freezing Soft/Fizzy Drinks Bottle

cpstears

What should happen when a 2 litre bottle is placed in a freezer or a fridge which is turned up to high?

This morning there was an almighty smash in my kitchen upon investigating I found a 2 litre bottle of Sprite had split long ways over the entire length of the bottle the explosion that caused this also blew the door of the fridge open and shattered the glass shelf. I'll post pictures of the bottle later.

Any idea's what caused this to happen??

//c

Crucifix

I don't know if there's anything specific to fizzy drinks, but water will expand when frozen.

BMH

And the drink is more fizzy when cold, as more CO2 dissolves in colder water.

SOL

Doesn't the CO2 come out of the water on freezing? Thus causing a rise in pressure in the bottle as well as the ice expansion pressure?


I reccomend writing an angry letter to sprite

Civilian_Target

Yep.

It's pretty simple. The water expands as it cools, compressing the gas. The compressed gas exerts more pressure on the sides of the bottle. Eventually, the pressure becomes stronger than the bottle can contain and BOOM! The weakest point gives and you have a mess in your freezer. Because the gas depressurises very quickly, you create a small explosion in the process (which is why gas explosions are so messy)

Thats why on the side of a sprite bottle it says "Store at a temerature between 2 and 6 degrees"

Gurgle

BMH wrote:

as more CO2 dissolves in colder water.

Or, to be more accurate, exactly the opposite.