Can vinegar evaporate?

Question

If you pour half an inch of vinegar into an open cup, can it evaporate in a few days? What if you put a penny in there too?
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Answer 1

Vinegar can evaporate, although its boiling point of 118.1 °C is slightly higher than that of water so it won't evaporate at room temperature as quickly as water does. If you drop in a penny, a small amount of copper acetate precipitate will be left after the vinegar evaporates.

Answer 2

Vinegar (from the store) is only a 5% solution, which means that it is mostly water - so it will evaporate (it will do so very readily. Because not only is water there, but vinegar is also volatile (which is why you smell it - it is turning into a gas very easily). I clean my carpets with vinegar and I POUR the vinegar onto the carpet and within 24 hours, a cup full has evaporated! Granted, I poured it so the surface area is a lot larger than if you left it standing in a cup.

Pennies are easily cleaned by vinegar, so you would indeed get a pretty shiny copper penny out of the solution.

A better experiment would be to put an egg (which is a calcium carbonate shell) into a cup of vinegar - the vinegar will dissolve the calcium carbonate and you will be left with the egg contained in the membrane.

Answer 3

Everything evaporates, even metals. It depends on the substance's specific vapor pressure. Isopropyl alchohol has a very high vapor pressure, so it quickly evaporates. Water also has a relatively high vapor pressure, so it evaporates relatively quickly. Vinegar would evaporate at some rate similar to that of water, especially since most store-bought white vinegars are 95% water.

Even metals, such as iron, evaporate. But they evaporate VERY slowly. Tungsten metal, used in lightbulbs, has the lowest vapor pressure of all known substances.

Answer 4

yes, it could evaporate... as far as with the penny, I don't know, offhand, the chemical reaction between vinegar and copper. The vinegar is acidic, but only the coating of new pennies if copper, so any reaction wouldn't last too long, it seems to me.

Answer 5

Yes. I was using it to remove hard water stains from a cup. I did not get to it right away because I was out of town for the weekend. It did evaporate somewhat over those three days.

Answer 6

Vinegar is a mild acid and does evaporate. As for the penny, it would tarnish (oxidize) and acquire a greenish coating called, patina.

Answer 7

all liquids will evaporate if left in the open air .. The penny will probably be pretty clean..

Answer 8

I would do the experiment and find out. do at least four experiments to find out. Have a control, maybe water.
good luck.

Answer 9

YES!!!!!!