OT: Coke (was: leaky batteries!

From: der Mouse <mouse_at_Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
Date: Wed Dec 3 02:55:11 2003

[cisin_at_xenosoft.com]
> "carbonic acid" is water with CO2 in suspension??

[vance_at_neurotica.com]
> No. Not in suspension. In solution.

It's not quite a solution in the usual sense of the word. More like a
reaction product - but it's one which is fairly close to balanced
energically and thus can run either way with relative ease, either
H2O+CO2->H2CO3 or H2CO3->H2O+CO2. (Most reactions run both ways in
theory, but with a large energy difference that makes it easy to run
one way and hard the other. An example is NaOH+HCl = H2O+NaCl+heat,
with the "heat" term large enough, especially compared to the
activation energy, that it's _hard_ to make salt water disassociate
into caustic soda and hydrochloric acid.)

Amazing where things can go when you start talking about, oh, say,
cleaning up after leaky batteries.

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Received on Wed Dec 03 2003 - 02:55:11 GMT