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Inspired in part by the question boiling point of vodka - given that the exact ingredients of Coca-Cola are kept secret, based on what is known, what would a viable prediction of the boiling point of Coca-Cola be?

Would it be significantly different from related products (e.g. Diet Coke, Coke Zero, etc)?

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Your best guess for the boiling point of any version of Coke would be 100 C, the boiling point of water.

Diet Coke is mostly water (the flavourings are a very small amount relative to the amount of water). The largest ingredient will be the sweetener but there will be only a fraction of a gram of that. It is unlikely you will notice any deviation from the properties of water.

Standard Coke has quite a lot of sugar in it. A standard can (~300ml) contains about 40g of sugar. To put it another way, the contents are more than 10% sugar by weight and the solution is about 1/3 mol/L of sucrose (other sugars will be slightly different). A standard calculation using the ebullioscopic constant for water suggests the elevation of the boiling point will be barely 0.2 C, so small you'd struggle to measure it without good instruments and a good experimental setup.

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    $\begingroup$ +1 Great answer, so essentially, Coca Cola and just about all soft drinks could be considered as sweetened water,in this respect. $\endgroup$
    – user4076
    Jan 1, 2014 at 20:27
  • $\begingroup$ @Amaterasu Well, that is indeed what they are. $\endgroup$
    – jeremy
    Jan 2, 2014 at 7:52
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    $\begingroup$ Atmosferic preasure will produce a greater difference. $\endgroup$
    – f p
    Jan 2, 2014 at 13:07
  • $\begingroup$ Oh pressure produces diffrence so It depends upon pressure, when the bottle is totally closed it has more pressure etc.. $\endgroup$ Mar 6, 2015 at 15:16
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Here's an excellent resource that says the difference between 10% sucrose (aka coke) and water is less than a degree Celsius: http://kitchenscience.sci-toys.com/boiling_freezing_pressure

Why don't you just measure it? All you need is a bottle of coke, a thermometer and a kitchen. There will be some foam when the CO2 comes out, so heat slowly or be prepared for a sticky mess.

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  • $\begingroup$ I have a bottle of coke and a few kitchen thermometers. Be right back! $\endgroup$
    – chipbuster
    Jul 4, 2018 at 18:05
  • $\begingroup$ Please do post your results if you get any! $\endgroup$
    – Martin
    Jul 4, 2018 at 21:56

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