A public service announcement

[shadow73]

I believe that I'm going to change my normal pattern and give the
moral of the story at the beginning:  You are always safer if you
assume that the directions you find on the internet simply will not
work as advertised.

As an example I submit this link: 
http://www.break.com/index/how-to-make-glow-in-the-dark-mountain-dew.html

I couldn't help but try

Comments

[oregonsongbird]

How IS the glowing achieved and unexploded residue? Sounds like a bad remake of a bad Grey's Anatomy episode...

curious minds want to know.

[oregonsongbird]

Aah...so the person in the video isn't exhibiting any real smart chemistry behind it at all. Figures.

[shadow73]

Azreel is right. The trick happens when the camera zooms in on the teaspoon of baking soda. The soda bottle leaves the frame long enough for the person in the image to switch it for a different bottle. (hint: watch the position of the lable on the bottle before and after the zoom-in.

I was tipped off by the instruction to empty all but 1/4" of the beverage. Why that much specifically? The answer is that glow sticks don't contain much fluid, so in order to maintain continuity with the amount of fluid in the bottle most of the soda would have to be removed.

The glass vial inside the glow stick contains peroxide. That's why the fluid begins to glow when he adds it from the bottle.

If this actually worked it would have been discovered YEARS ago.