Making Sherbet

Making Sherbet

Aim: To make Sherbet with dry ingredients.

Equipment required: A small bag to contain the Sherbet, a tablespoon, a teaspoon, raro, icing sugar, baking soda, citric acid and tartaric acid.



Method: 

1.  Gather all your ingredients.
2. Get your plastic bag and then pour in a tablespoon of raro and icing sugar.
3. Pour a teaspoon of baking soda, citric acid and tartaric acid.
4. Seal the bag and begin to shake it for a minute or two until it looks like it is properly mixed.
5. Taste it then repeat (if you wish). To not eat too much of it in a day otherwise you will get Diarrhea. If it tastes a bit to bitter add more acid and if it tastes to sour add some more baking soda.

The science behind what happens

You will notice that once water makes contact with the mixture it begins to foam. This is a chemical reaction where the saliva from your mouth, in this case, causes the citric acid crystals to dissolve. Meanwhile, the citric acid is also reacting with the bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). This is because when an acid reacts with water the protons dissociate and spread out in the water these protons are H+ (Hydrogen) ions. Once this is done the acid will decompose because of it's losing of protons. The base (bicarbonate of soda) will then begin to take in these H+ ions. This reaction produces carbon dioxide which makes a fizzy feeling on your tongue. This reaction can be written as NaHCO3 (aq) + C6H8O7 -------> 3CO2 + 3H2O + C6H5O7Na3. 

What you just read was a chemical formula using each chemicals symbol instead of its name. Writing it this way instead of saying Water + Citric acid ----> (whatever the products would be) is shorter yet more detailed than what was shown just before. These are written to show what reactants are reacting together to make the products. The (aq) next to NaHCO (bicarbonate of soda) means that the substance will dissolve in water during the experiment. This symbol is only present in a formula if the solution is Aqueous. This means that the solvent (the substance dissolving the other chemicals) is water instead of another liquid.