Coke vs. Diet Coke Density

While at my mom's this weekend, my sister and I got in a discussion about science fairs and she mentioned an experiment she'd seen where a Diet Coke was floating in a tank while a regular Coke had sunk. One of us (to protect the innocent, I'm not telling who) didn't believe this experiment was true while the other did. So, we decided to try it.


My mom did happen to have both Diet and regular Coke - and it worked! The Coke sank and the Diet Coke floated. The other thing that brought my mom, myself, and my sister into fits of giggles was watching the cans "shrink" every time we put them in the water! (Yes - we all love science, but I think we were just way too tired to have that much fun watching Cokes "shrink.") They look like the mini-cans, but they are full size!

I found an explanation on this site and a great idea about showing kids how much sugar vs. Nutrasweet are needed to sweeten the soft drinks. Nutrasweet is so sweet, you don't need much!
What did you learn today???