Are Fizzing Drinks Boiling? A Chemical Insight from Chemistry Education Research

The insight that fizzing drinks are "boiling" arose during analysis of the results of a pilot study on graduate scientists' understanding of evaporation and boiling. When the question whether fizzing drinks are boiling was put to participants in the main study, the overwhelming majority answered "No" and no one answered "Yes". The suggestion that fizzing drinks are examples of liquids boiling at room temperature has proved to be controversial among both chemists and chemical educators. This paper presents a case for believing this everyday system to be a good example of a boiling solution and the consequent separation of carbon dioxide from the solution to exemplify fractional distillation.