You’re cooped up at home, watching your
favorite videos on the Infographics Show. You love the ones where that guy does crazy
stunts and challenges - you can’t believe the things he gets up to! You’re watching the one where he spends
twenty-four hours in the bathtub, as his body gets more and more wrinkled and his body gets
more sore from lying against the hard edge of the tub. Fortunately, his body doesn’t suffer any
real ill effects from the super-long bath, aside from some oddly loose skin that will
fit back into place perfectly once the body dries out. You’re bored without much to do at home,
and you wonder - could you top this crazy stunt? You’re not going to spend two or more days
in the bath, so you’re instead thinking about what else you can take a bath in. What would it be like to take a twenty-four
hour bath in soda? Would this sugary-fizzy substance have a worse
effect on your skin, or would it be safe? You’re about to find out! You’ve got a large stockpile of your favorite
cola at home, and an empty bathtub. After pouring out most of your stash into
the bathtub, your tub is filled near the top with a brown, bubbling liquid that doesn’t
look particularly inviting for bathing. But you’re here in the name of science,
and in you go. When you first get in, you’re surprised
by a few things. The highly carbonated liquid has a bubbling,
tingling sensation. This is going to make it hard to get comfortable,
because it’s like a million little pokes every time a bubble bursts against your skin. It’s not painful, but you can imagine this
getting old very quickly. The good news is, the soda isn’t going to
stay carbonated forever, and when exposed to the open air, it’ll eventually go flat. No one likes flat soda, but it’ll make lying
in this bath a lot more comfortable. You’re glad you opened a few windows before
doing this experiment, because these bottles contain a lot of Co2 and you don’t want
to inhale all that in a closed space. The other thing that stands out is that the
sugar content of this soda is very clear. You can feel a sticky sensation on your skin
when you lift your hand out of the tub, and you imagine that when you get out of your
extended soda bath, you’re going to need another bath to get it all off! When you dip your hand back in, it feels like
the sugar is getting washed off, but you know it’s just picking up a new layer from the
soda bath. You have to be careful of how you sit in the
bath, because the more you sink into the tub, the more you’re going to get that sticky
feeling all over your body when you sit up. You’ve got a long time ahead of you in this
bathtub, and staying comfortable is going to be a challenge. You start to wonder what you’ve gotten into. What do you really know about this substance
you’ve volunteered to sit in for a day? Coca-Cola is one of the most popular packaged
beverages in the world, and most of its ingredients are familiar - those we know, at least. It’s one of the most closely-guarded secrets
in the world, and its main ingredients are carbonated water, sugar - either sucrose or
high-fructose corn syrup, phosphoric acid, and caramel color, plus natural flavorings. Those natural flavorings are where the big
mystery comes in, as the secret flavorings are as tightly guarded as Kentucky Fried Chicken’s
eleven herbs and spices. There’s one flavoring you’re pretty sure
isn’t in there anymore, though - cocaine, which was originally included in small doses
of extract from Coca leaves when the formula was perfected in 1891. There are many other colas, but most have
a similar formula with slightly different ingredients. As you sit in the bath and watch your skin
get stickier and try to turn pruney, you’re more worried about another ingredient you
see on the label - Phosphoric acid. The idea of sitting in a formula that contains
acid for twenty-four hours is more than a little worrying - you’re starting to get
visions of dissolving in the bath in your head! The good news is, while Phosphoric acid is
a potent acid when in its pure form and can cause burns on the skin or eye damage, it’s
harmless when diluted. When added to a soda or jam, it’s used to
create a mild tangy flavor in food. Back in the day of old-fashioned soda shops,
sodas containing it were called phosphates. Phosphoric acid is also used to remove rust,
but you’re hoping it won’t have the same effect on your skin! You’ve been in the bathtub for several hours
now, and you’re following the rules of the original video - you can only complete the
challenge if you stay in the bathtub for the entire time without a break. The good news is, you’re fully equipped
with technology and your phone and computer are nearby. You can watch videos, order food, and keep
busy. But you can’t help but sneak a look at your
hands and legs every once in a while. This is much longer than the average bath,
and you can definitely see your feet and hands starting to get that loose texture that comes
with sitting in the bath too long. Does your skin look a little darker from the
caramel color sinking into your skin? You’re not sure, but you think you can see
a slight difference. It’ll be much clearer after another few
hours. The guy in the original video didn’t suffer
any long-term physical problems from sitting in the tub for a full day besides a sore back
and some loose skin he had to be careful not to pull on, but he made it pretty clear he
wouldn’t push it much further. There are risks to being constantly immersed
in liquid with no break, as soldiers often find out. The most common injury from overexposure to
water on the skin is called Trench Foot, for soldiers who spend days on end walking through
wet, marshy climates in combat. With no break and no opportunity to take the
boots out and air out their feet, their shoes trap the water and cause swelling, poor blood
supply, and a terrible odor from the feet. If treated, the feet will return to normal
within a few days. But if the condition is allowed to progress,
it can result in blisters, sores, fungal infection, and even gangrene. The good news is, this is most common when
people are walking constantly in wet shoes. All you have to do is lie here, and you don’t
have to worry about any of that. Normally, you’d be busy in the bathtub,
scrubbing yourself clean and using soap and shampoo. But taking a bath in soda is enough of an
experiment, and you don’t want to add more substances to that and muddy the experiment. Besides, you think scrubbing in sugary water
confuses the point of a bath. It’s been almost eight hours now, and the
water is now almost completely flat. That makes it a little more comfortable, but
the sticky feeling on your skin is getting more and more pronounced with each hour. It feels like you’re coated in a thin, sticky
slime of soda. The caramel color is definitely starting to
seep into your skin - it’s a potent color that’s been used in the personal care industry
for years as a way to dye hair. But being immersed in it for hours on end
makes you wonder if you’re going to wind up with an uneven tan! You wonder if anyone else has ever done this
experiment. You don’t have anything else to do while
you wait for your soda tub quarantine to be over, so you decide to look up other coca-cola
baths. You find a few videos of guys claiming to
be doing coca-cola baths, but most of them are obviously fake. Your skin is starting to get loose and feel
a little raw, and you really want to know what a long-term stay in soda is going to
do to organic matter. You might not be able to find the answer in
a video of someone doing the same challenge, but you can find the next best thing - science
experiments on food! Your first hit is a video of an egg suspended
in Coca-Cola for twenty-four hours, and what you see is almost enough to make you jump
up out of the bath and end your experiment right now! The video shows what the egg looks like after
a night in the cola, and it’s disturbing. The egg shell has completely dissolved, leaving
a thin translucent membrane holding the white and yolk. Is that what’s going to happen to your skin? You hope not, and you’re able to stay calm
long enough to check whether this experiment is the real thing. Sure enough, it’s not - the entire thing
is a hoax by someone using a plastic egg toy to simulate the dissolved egg. There’s no evidence that placing an egg
in soda will dissolve its shell. Phew! You wipe the sweat off your forehead - but
now you have sticky cola on your forehead, ew. The next experiment you look at is more reassuring. It’s a test on whether a marinade of Coca-Cola
will dissolve a piece of meat. As you’re made of meat, this seems relevant! It’s a long-standing urban legend that leaving
a steak in a cola bath for forty-eight hours will dissolve the meat entirely, but it’s
just that - an urban legend. In fact, the meat can be left in for several
days without even starting to break down. What it will do after only a day or so is
start to tenderize the meat, making it a handy marinade that adds a tasty and sweet overtone
to the meat at your next barbecue. Sounds like a recipe idea to note down - once
you’re out of this soda bath. It’s been a long day inside this cola bath,
and you’ve managed to keep busy by reading up on similar experiments, ordering food,
and moving around just enough to keep your body from getting too stiff in one position. You’ve been taking your arms out of the
bath frequently to do things, so they’re not that much more pruney than your usual
appearance after a bath. They’re covered in a film of sticky soda
sugar that gets dried after a short time outside the bath, and then gets wet and slick again
when you plunge them back in. Your lower body is a different story, as it’s
been in the tub this whole time. Your skin has taken on a pale, flabby appearance,
especially near your feet. Your skin is loose, and easy to pull away
from the body. You have to be careful when you examine it
- you don’t want to tear any away. The clock is ticking down towards the twenty-four
hour mark, and there’s one element of this experiment that is wearing you down - staying
up for twenty-four hours. Whether in your apartment or in a bath of
cola, not sleeping for twenty-four hours is going to cause fatigue. It becomes harder to stay focused and keep
from drifting off, which is something you definitely don’t want to happen - slipping
under in the bathtub would be a very unpleasant experience. Not only is there the risk of drowning, but
you don’t want to think about getting that soda out of your hair. You keep focused by moving around and watching
a few more videos. Almost there… The alarm clock strikes, and it’s twenty-four
hours. Time to free yourself of your soda bathtub
prison. There’s just one problem - you’ve got
to get up. After sitting in a bathtub of a mildly corrosive
substance for twenty-four hours, your body is stiff and painful, and your skin is very
sensitive, especially in the area below your waist. You move cautiously, inching your way up and
being careful not to pull any muscles or tear any skin. As soon as you stand up and pull the plug,
watching the soda go down the drain, you start to feel better. It’s time to wash off. But that comfortable feeling doesn’t last
long, as the normal water starts to wash all the sugar off your skin. Your skin is much more sensitive than normal,
as the phosphoric acid in the soda has done to you what it does to all meat - tenderized
it. You’ll want to be careful while washing
yourself off, keeping the temperature moderate and turning down the water pressure so it
doesn’t feel like millions of little water missiles are hitting you. The slimy coating of sugar is washing away,
and your skin is starting to return to its normal feeling. Well, almost normal. Your skin will become tight again shortly,
just as it does after any long bath, but it’s going to take a couple of baths for the staining
of the caramel color all over your body to disappear - and you’re definitely not going
to scrub it off now, as sensitive as your skin is. You get out of the shower, moving cautiously. Your skin is tender and itchy, and you’re
tempted to start scratching, but you know that could tear the skin and cause bleeding
or infection. The best plan is to wear loose-fitting clothing
and let your skin return to normal gradually. This was definitely a less pleasant - and
stickier - experience than sitting in water for twenty-four hours, but it also won’t
cause massive physical problems if you’re in overall good skin health. This experiment was a success - at least until
you have to explain to your friends what happened to your skin. Want to see the experiment that kicked this
off? Check out “Don’t Leave Bathtub for 24
Hours”, or check out this video instead. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next
time!
