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Does yeast combined with hydrogen peroxide create a bigger volcanic eruption than vinegar combined with baking soda? If so, why?
Question Date: 2019-02-25
Answer 1:

You may be able to make a bigger volcanic eruption using yeast and hydrogen peroxide than buy using baking soda and vinegar. This is because Hydrogen peroxide goes through a chemical reaction with the use of a catalyst. A catalyst is something that can speed up a chemical reaction. In this case, the chemical reaction is of Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) forming water (H2O) and oxygen (O2). Using yeast, which is the catalyst, you can speed up this reaction resulting in a bigger eruption (which comes from the oxygen gas). This will, however, depend on the amount of yeast you use.

On the other hand, if you use baking soda and vinegar, this reaction will not utilize a catalyst, meaning the reaction will not happen faster by itself. If you would like to make this reaction faster, you will need to use more vinegar. This reaction happens by adding vinegar (CH3COOH) and baking soda (NaHCO3) together to form salt (NaCl), water (H2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2). The CO2 in this chemical reaction is the gas in the eruption. If we use more vinegar, then there will be more for the baking soda to react with. However, using the best ratio of vinegar to baking soda will still give you a slower reaction than hydrogen peroxide with yeast, since the vinegar and baking soda reaction does not use a catalyst. Hope this answers your question!"



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