Why don’t the bubbles in soda (pop) or seltzer come out immediately and completely when the top is removed from the can/bottle? If the top is off, doesn’t that remove the pressure keeping the bubbles in the liquid? In other words, shouldn’t soda (pop) or seltzer immediately become flat when opening the container?
Without getting into the ideas seed sites, etc. It takes time for the gas to become undissolved, just as it takes time for the gas to be dissolved in the first place. Similarly, when you dump two heaping spoonfulls of sugar into your iced tea, it doesn’t all dissolve at once, but will after quite a bit of time and stirring.
Those dopers who are divers should know the answer to this question. Remember the Gas Laws?
One of them reads something like this: “The amount of gas that will dissolve into a solution is directly proportional to the pressure acting on the solution.”
In the example of the soda being opened, the reverse would happen when the pressure comes off. there is a great rush of bubbles when the can/bottle is cracked, but this tapers off to quiet bubbling very quickly, then takes much longer to dwindle down to nothing.
The reason is that as the pressure acting on the gas in suspension is released, the partial pressure of the gas drops rapidly at first. Then, as the pressure gradient flattens out, the release of gas continually reduces until the pressure difference is nil. There will still a minute proportion of the gas suspended in the soda, but it won’t be enough to form bubbles, let alone “undissolve” itself.