is there a differece between baking soda & baking powder?

Question

daughter needs it 4 a volcano project to create lava eruption

Answer 1

For your project, baking soda needs an acid to foam up....
while paking powder reacts with water (since it already contains a dry acidic ingredient). However, baking soda may generate a more vigorous reaction so you may want to try a vinegar-water solution (or just straight vinegar). Also, you can try adding food coloring to the solution to give it the reddish lava look. You can try dying the baking soda by adding a drop to some baking soda (1/2cup) in a ziploc bag and mix... However, I'm not sure if the dye will start the reaction or not. Just try it out.

Also, baking soda is less expensive than baking powder for your project.

For baking, both provide leavening by producing carbon dioxide. Baking soda needs an acid added to be batter/dough. Baking powder does not since it contains tartaric acid. Double acting baking powders also produce carbon dioxide when heated (during baking), but for your experiment you're not going to heat things up.

Answer 2

Put half cup baking soda and half cup table salt or sea salt in blender and buzz it til well blended and very few crystals are noticible. This works as a great tooth powder. You can add 1/4 teaspoon mint or other extract for flavoring if you wish. Baking powder will not work very well. Wait to start this til you go to the store and get some baking soda.

Answer 3

Yes

Baking soda and baking powder are both used to make dough rise--that is, become filled with tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide. But there's a small but crucial difference between the two.

Baking soda is actually sodium bicarbonate, a simple compound that, when mixed with an acid, releases CO2 gas. That's why sodium bicarb is a remedy for "sour stomach": the bicarb reacts with the acids in the stomach, neutralizes them, and generates gas in the process. A couple of belches later and all is well again (at least until those nachos get to the intestines, anyway).

Baking powder, by contrast, contains sodium bicarbonate plus cream of tartar and a drying agent. Cream of tartar is an acid and will react with the sodium bicarb when dissolved in water. The drying agent, normally a starch, keeps the mix dry and prevents an explosive reaction from occurring in the can. Baking powder deteriorates with age, so don't buy a ton of it unless you plan on using it all soon. Eventually moisture gets in, overpowers the drying agent, and causes carbon dioxide to be slowly released.

Many baking powders are advertised as "double-acting." This simply means that the powder contains two acids, one that works at temperatures of 120 degrees and higher (i.e., the oven), and the other at room temperature. Double-acting baking powders are useful in recipes where cooking takes a long time--a cake, for example.

Answer 4

Baking soda is four times more powerful than baking powder.

Answer 5

the two contributions below are correct in regards to the difference and the obvious reference is wikipedia shown below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate

Answer 6

yes! the container it comes in

Answer 7

yes, if there was no difference, then why would there be two different things?....right?

Answer 8

exsqueeze me?