[wolfgang]

Maria celebrates her 18th birthday today. Ten of her friends were invited,only one of them( Mr. John)has diabetes,and she knows that,thats why she bought 9 normal coca-cola cans and one coca-cola zero can for him.

She poured each can in a big Coke glass.As she went to bring something from the other room,somebody put the glasses on a serving plate randomely.

Why did you do that? she said angerly..

I wanted to help you...sorry...whats wrong with that?

How can I give Mr. John his Coke now?

all the glasses are very similar,and containing the same amount of Coke.

all the Cokes tastes the same.

can you help Maria to find the glass with coca-cola zero?

Note: they were at her appartement(No lab. procedures).

Edited April 26, 2011 by wolfgang

[Guest]

She simply pulls out her recently bought pack of Mentos and carefully dip it in each glass. The glass with Coca Cola Zero will bubble from the effect of nucleation (see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_and_candy_eruption)

Coca Cola Zero and Diet Coke have the same recipe - different branding.

Edited April 26, 2011 by Theodoranton

[Guest]

However

wouldn't it add sugar to the coke zero?

[Guest]

[spoiler=no it wouldnt ]http://www.amazon.com/Mentos-Sugar-Chewy-Candy-Berries/dp/B000MOJDT8

[Guest]

She simply pulls out her recently bought pack of Mentos and carefully dip it in each glass. The glass with Coca Cola Zero will bubble from the effect of nucleation (see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_and_candy_eruption)

Coca Cola Zero and Diet Coke have the same recipe - different branding.

Though aspertine can play a part in the reaction, the reaction of a Mentos with normal Coca-cola and Coca-cola Zero would be about the same. Thus, the Mentos test fails.

What Maria can do is ask Mr. John for some glucose test strips (as a diabetic, he most likely carries a few with him). A drop of cola applied to the test strip will indicate whether sugar is present in the soft drink.

[Guest]

freeze it. those with sugar will slit into two layers, one sugar one water.

[Akriti]

freeze it. those with sugar will slit into two layers, one sugar one water.

i will go with u

[Guest]

Cover the glasses with plastic wrap to ensure a good seal. Fill the sink with water and place the glasses in the water one at a time. The Coke Zero will weigh the least and float slightly

[Guest]

How about taking a drop from reach glass and dropping it onto clean paper. after they dry, the coke zero will be the only one that is not sticky.

Edited April 26, 2011 by Singerbear

[Guest]

The Zero container must have a different density than the rest of the glasses and therefore must weight slightly diferent form the rest of the similar glasses. If Maria has a scale at her place, she can definitely work it out.

[Guest]

freeze it. those with sugar will slit into two layers, one sugar one water.

I know from a project I did with American Can many years ago that the sugar serves as an antifreeze causing the beverage to form a slush rather than a brick.. In the early days of pop-tops, dietetic beverages put into freezers were exploding. I found that without the sugar, the freezing shell kept forcing the carbonation into the still liquid middle--building up pressure. The fix was to design the cans so they would leak before they reached that point.

The bottom line is that sugar and diet pops do freeze differently.

[Guest]

The problem with weighing, you can't assume all the glasses have equal amounts of drink precise to the milliliter, I know the OP said they all contain the same amount of drink but in a real life scenario there'd be more and less in each glass but the amounts would be random and you won't be able to tell them apart by weight...

I like Singerbear's solution...

Though why not try:

Tasting them? I can always tell the difference when I'm drinking sugar-free drinks, like Pepsi Max which advertises itself as "Zero sugar, Maximum taste", ha, maximum taste my *** it tastes awful...

[Guest]

quote name='Anza Power' date='26 April 2011 - 12:30 PM' timestamp='1303842628' post='277773']

The problem with weighing, you can't assume all the glasses have equal amounts of drink precise to the milliliter, I know the OP said they all contain the same amount of drink but in a real life scenario there'd be more and less in each glass but the amounts would be random and you won't be able to tell them apart by weight...

I like Singerbear's solution...

Though why not try:

Tasting them? I can always tell the difference when I'm drinking sugar-free drinks, like Pepsi Max which advertises itself as "Zero sugar, Maximum taste", ha, maximum taste my *** it tastes awful...

[fabpig]

wouldn't yu require something a bit quicker than freezing/thawing?

[Molly Mae]

Can anyone verify (quickly) whether a laser pointer will pass through coke? The refraction of light is different when sugar is added to a liquid (typically water), but I'm thinking a laser light won't pass through coke...

Just a thought.

[Guest]

place a small amount of baking soda on a tray. one at a time put a drop of the liquid on the baking soda the one with the aspartame will have a much more noticeable reaction

[Guest]

I know that diet coke is noticably darker than regular coke. I'm guessing the same is true for coke zero versus regular coke.

[Guest]

Maria, turning 18, is now legally allowed to brew beer. (not drink it though.) She takes out her trusty hydrometer and measures the sugar content of each. Coke zero has the lowest figure on the hydrometer.

[Aaryan]

i think its going to a lot of trouble just to find a glass of coke zero...

[Molly Mae]

i think its going to a lot of trouble just to find a glass of coke zero...

Ah, yes, but Maria is a clever girl and would never allow herself to be bested by the likes of a glass of cola.

[Guest]

is there a camera???

[wolfgang]

is there a camera???

Yes...there is..

[Guest]

all the cokes really taste the same, then simple deduction tells me that the coke zero is not among them... no way do coke and coke zero taste the same!

[Molly Mae]

all the cokes really taste the same, then simple deduction tells me that the coke zero is not among them... no way do coke and coke zero taste the same!

Taste is subjective, though. Some people can't detect subtle taste differences.

[Guest]

It says they all taste the same in the riddle, if you don't believe it then let's a say for the sake of the riddle that coca-cola have invented a version that is identical

Edited April 28, 2011 by Segul

[Guest]

The Mentos? Diet Coke and Coke Zero tend to go a bit higher than regular soda, because they have a little more carbonation and the sweeteners help make the reaction a little bigger. So by dropping mentos into all of the glasses, you should be able to tell which one is the Coke Zero. You would, however, waste all the pop.