Our bodies are fascinating machines, which work in both interesting and, at times weird ways. Do you want to know why our body sometimes produces burps, and why we occasionally get goosebumps all over our body? You cover your mouth with your hand, but it’s too late. Where did that burp come from?
A burp, sometimes called a belch, is nothing but gas. When you eat, drink, you do not just swallow food or liquid. You are swallowing air at the same time and we know that air is made up of gases such as nitrogen and oxygen. When we drink fizzy drinks for instance, we directly ingest the gas inside the drinks that makes them fizzy. That is where burping comes in!
Extra gas is forced out of the stomach, up through the oesophagus (pronounced: ee-soph-a-gus) or food tube and out of the mouth as a burp. When the air escapes through the flap between the stomach and the oesophagus it vibrates it, creating the loud BBUUURRRRRPPP sound. Did you notice how soda or other carbonated beverages make you burp more? Can you guess why? If you are thinking that it’s because these drinks contain extra gas, you’re right! The gas that makes the drinks fizzy is carbon dioxide, another gas that can bring on big burps. How loud can you burp? The world-record for the loudest burp is held by Paul Hunn. The burp was louder than the roar of a motorbike and measured 104.9 decibels (decibels or dBs for short are the units used to measure the loudness of sounds).
Similar to burps, our bodies also produce gas during digestion. Bacteria in the large intestine, the good kind, break down food and releases a combination of gases. The bad smell comes from hydrogen sulphide, which contains sulphur, a very smelly gas! Another gas produced is methane. Methane is a very flammable gas, therefore, releasing a fart close to a candle is not a very good idea!
And have you ever wondered why those bumps we get when we are cold are called ‘goosebumps’? This is something passed down to us by our much hairier ancestors. The hair-raising reaction traps the air inside to keep us warm. With evolution, we’ve grown to be less hairy and that’s how we came up with the term ‘goosebumps’; on hairless skin these bumps look like that of a goose or a bird after the feathers are pulled off in preparation for cooking.
Let’s put this into practice… this experiment is all about gas build-up and release. Our bodies build up this unwanted gas and is released in the form of burps and farts. All you need is:
Here is how to do it:
Step 1: Fill one quarter of the tube with water.
Step 2: Break the table into pieces. We will only need half of it and place that half on the inner side of the lid.
Step 3: Quickly, close the lid onto the tube in a way that the tablet piece falls inside the tube with the water. Make sure the lid is closed well that it clicks.
Step 4: Give the tube a quick shake and place it upside down on a flat surface.
Step 5: Step back a few steps and wait until the tube pops.
What is happening?
When the fizzy tablet, also known as effervescing tablet, mixes with water, a chemical reaction takes place between the citric acid and sodium bicarbonate in the tablet with the water. These two chemicals are opposite of each other since the citric acid is a weak acid and the sodium bicarbonate is an alkali. The water will make the two chemicals soluble hence they mix and react. This reaction releases plenty of Carbon dioxide gas, just like the gas our body releases through burps. When the gas builds up, pressure builds up too in the tube and the CO2 wants to be released. The pressure builds so much that the CO2 has no more room in the tube, it is released by popping the lid off.
For further exploration, have a look at this feature where our science communicators are exploring the science of burps and farts.
https://www.facebook.com/1510459595942717/videos/1595713253930984
