Applied Fizzics Field Notes

Yes, we know this is not how you're supposed to open Champagne. Yes, we know the cork should come out with the sound of a nun's sigh. But in the interest of science, sometimes you have to break the rules. In this edition, we shake a bottle of Champagne and see if that makes the cork go faster.

We measured the speed of a Champagne cork using nothing but an iPhone, some poster board, and a Magic Marker. The speed will surprise you, but the acceleration will shock you.

A bottle of Champagne at 65 psi contains a surprising amount of stored energy. Break the bottle, and that energy is released very quickly. We know this because, in the course of product development, we blew up a lot of bottles. But here's the interesting question: Which is more dangerous—a full bottle pressurized to 65 psi, or an empty bottle pressurized to the same pressure?

We've spent a lot of time talking about how CO₂ gets into and out of solution. This week, we decided to close the loop. First, we measured the pressure inside a fresh bottle of Champagne. Then we opened it, drove out the CO₂, and asked a wonderfully simple question: Can we put the bubbles back?

In Field Notes #7, we tested the old bit of barroom wisdom that tapping a shaken can of beer before opening it will keep it from spewing, and we posted the video on YouYube. Several viewers averred that we had tapped our beers incorrectly. So we redid the experiment. What we found was something very unexpected about bubbles and foam.

In this edition of Field Notes, we show how forced carbonation works, with a simple kitchen scale. Wait—you can weigh carbonation? You can, and the results may surprise you.

In this edition of Field Notes, we do a deep dive into the physics of spewing foam from shaken cans of beer. The answer is not what you think. And does tapping the can before opening help? We give the definitive answer to this urban legend.