# Cecil is mistaken, coke does not disolve aluminum **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 19, 2008, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257 "2008-09-19T03:07:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257/21 "2008-09-20T01:12:02Z")
If anything were going to happen, it’d happen a lot more quickly out on the countertop than in the freezer. Almost all chemical reactions proceed more slowly when cold. As for tomato sauce and aluminum foil, I understand that that’s actually an electrolytic process, with two different metals and an acid forming a crude battery. So if you have lasagna in a steel pan covered with aluminum foil, it’ll corrode, but if you have it in an aluminum (or glass) pan, you only have one kind of metal, so no battery, so no corrosion. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257/22 "2008-09-20T01:24:32Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > The jar went into the reefer. I should have been typing “Ball” jar, I guess. 😉 Wait. You were smoking joints while doing the experiment. What kind of scientist are you?🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257/23 "2008-09-20T01:39:45Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Wait. You were smoking joints while doing the experiment. What kind of scientist are you?🙂 Takes the edge off the excitement of discovery. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257/24 "2008-09-20T01:47:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If anything were going to happen, it’d happen a lot more quickly out on the countertop than in the freezer. Almost all chemical reactions proceed more slowly when cold. > > As for tomato sauce and aluminum foil, I understand that that’s actually an electrolytic process, with two different metals and an acid forming a crude battery. So if you have lasagna in a steel pan covered with aluminum foil, it’ll corrode, but if you have it in an aluminum (or glass) pan, you only have one kind of metal, so no battery, so no corrosion. Is there enough dissolved metal in tomato sauce to support electrolysis? ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257/25 "2008-09-20T02:08:27Z")
> [@Crazyhorse](#): > > The writer linked to [this column from 1997](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1158/why-doesnt-coke-dissolve-the-can) which appears to be the intended reference. True, but the 1982 article appeared in the original Straight Dope book and seems to be what the author of the 1997 letter is referring to. > [@](#): > > I don’t know if it was poetic license or not but it was 1997 and Cecil wrote: “This prevents the highly corrosive contents from dissolving the containers. The unanswered question is, what keeps them from dissolving you?” It’s already been said, but Coke is weak stuff. The phosphoric acid _might_ attack bones (it doesn’t seem to react much with soft tissues), but it’s such a low concentration that it probably isn’t worth mentioning. Citric acid is recognized as a safe food additive, and carbonic acid is a function of carbonating the water and disappears as the Coke goes flat. ---
**Author:** ![Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interconnected_Series_of_Tubes)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257/26 "2008-09-20T02:31:11Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > You’ve already had the answer to why Coke in a can doesn’t dissolve the aluminum. It’s the lining. > > I was asking how the pH of Coke changes from the instant that it comes out of a freshly opened can, to 1 hour later, 2 hours later, a day later, etc. > > My guess is that it rapidly goes neutral as far a pH is concerned. I regularly use a fairly accurate 0-5.0 (or somesuch) indicator paper at work. I’ll grab some strips on Monday, a few cans, and play mythbuster. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257/27 "2008-09-20T17:14:47Z")
All of the myths about Coca Cola dissolving a nail, penny etc. are bullshit. Coke does not dissolve aluminum, I proved it. End of story until someone finds out what the hell Coca-Cola will dissolve, if anything. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257/28 "2008-09-20T17:55:14Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > All of the myths about Coca Cola dissolving a nail, penny etc. are bullshit. Coke does not dissolve aluminum, I proved it. End of story until someone finds out what the hell Coca-Cola will dissolve, if anything. Were’s the thing: You don’t get to end the story. 😉 I’m 63, and this “nail” thing has been around forever. You gotta roll with it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257/29 "2008-09-21T01:22:42Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Were’s the thing: You don’t get to end the story. 😉 > I’m 63, and this “nail” thing has been around forever. You gotta roll with it. Please explain to me carefully and in English what your post means. Unless you made a typo and instead of “Were’s”, you meant “Here’s”, in which case you are suggesting we fight _ **for** _ ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257/30 "2008-09-21T01:52:31Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Please explain to me carefully and in English what your post means. Unless you made a typo and instead of “Were’s”, you meant “Here’s”, in which case you are suggesting we fight _ **for** _ ignorance. Yep, typo. S/B “here’s the thing”. Everything else stands. As typed. You said “end of story, etc”. I said “you can’t do that”. Clear now? Sorry I didn’t preview. Is there such a thing as “were’s”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-is-mistaken-coke-does-not-disolve-aluminum/464257.md?page=1)