Question

What happened to the balloon when it was placed on the bottle with the baking soda and vinegar and why.

Answer 1

The ballon would be inflated. The reason is that the sodium bicarbonate in baking soda reacts with acetic acid in vinegar to produce gas.

Step-by-step explanation:

The main component of baking soda is sodium bicarbonate,
`{\rm Na_(2)CO_(3)}`.

Vinegar is mostly a solution of acetic acid
`{\rm CH_(3)COOH}` in water.

Acids such as acetic acid react with carbonate salts. One of the products of such reactions is carbon dioxide
`{\rm CO_(2)}`, a gas.

In this question, when the acetic acid in vinegar reacts with sodium bicarbonate in the baking soda, the following reaction would occur:

`\begin{aligned}& {\rm Na_(2)CO_(3)}\, (aq) + 2\, {\rm CH_(3)COOH}\, (aq) \\ &\to 2\, {\rm CH_(3)COONa}\, (aq) + {\rm CO_(2)}\, (g)\end{aligned}`.

The
`{\rm CO_(2)}` produced would then inflate the ballon placed on the opening of the bottle.