Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff works dot com where smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, why does Alka Seltzer fizz when you drop the tablet in the water. The fizzing you see when you drop the tablet in is the same sort of fizzing that you see from baking powder. The baking powder reaction is caused by an acid reacting with baking soda. In school, you probably tried an experiment where you mix baking soda with vinegar to see at foam. That's what's happening in
baking powder. If you look at the ingredients for Alka Seltzer, you'll find that it contains citric acid and sodium bicarbonate, which is baking soda. When you drop the tablet in water, the acid and the baking soda react. This produces the fizz. You can think of an Alka Seltzer tablet as compressed baking powder with a little aspirin mixed in. Do you
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