Science fair and yeast ballons

Some days ago we went to a home-school science fair. My project was this

It was about Yeast and baking powder as carbon dioxide producers.
Purpose 

The purpose of this experiment is to find out which combination will make the balloon rise fastest 

Hypothesis 

The Hot water-Baking powder combination will be fastest

Materials

4 Identical bottles

4 Identical balloons

2 cups of hot water 

2 cups of cold water 

6 teaspoons of dry active yeast

4 tablespoons of sugar

2 tablespoons of baking powder

4 stopwatches 

notebook

pen

Procedure

1. Stretch the balloons
2. Put 3 Tsp of yeast and 2 Tbs of sugar in 1 cup of hot water
3. Pour Hot water Yeast mixture in a bottle
4. Stretch a balloon over the bottle and start a stopwatch
5. Put the stopwatch next to the bottle 
6. Put a Tbs of baking powder in 1 cup of hot water 
7. Pour the hot water baking powder mixture in a empty bottle
8. Repeat step 4
9. Repeat step 2 with 1 cup of cold water instead of hot water
10. Repeat step 3,2 and 5
11. Repeat step 6 with 1 cup of cold water instead of hot water
12. take notes
13. Stop Stopwatches when their balloons are upright

Results 

Hot Water=HW

Yeast = Y

Cold Water=CW

Baking powder= BP

HW-Y

Time: around 7:28 minutes

Notes: Overflowed bottle after balloon was gone

Color: Light brown

Hot water-Yeast and sugar mixture

HW-BP

time: around 5:12 minutes

Notes: started bubbling( Producing CO2 )immediately.

Color: Whitish clear

Hot water-Baking powder mixture

CW-Y

Time: Did not go up

Notes: did not really bubble

Color:Light brown

CW-BP

Time: Did not go up

Notes: did not really bubble

Color:Whitish clear

Conclusion

We learned that the Hot water-Baking powder was the fastest combination

Baking powder

Most baking powder is made out of Sodium bicarbonate ( Or baking soda ),a starch ( like cornstarch) and an acid. Baking powder is used as a chemical leavening agent. Baking powder produces carbon dioxide(CO2) and this makes breads rise. It does it faster than yeast though ( as a proved in my experiment). It makes carbon dioxide through an acid base reaction. This reaction is between the acids and bases in the Baking powder. Sodium bicarbonate is a base. The reaction happens when water comes. 

Acids ( sometimes sodium aluminum sulfate  ) + bases (Sodium bicarbonate) + Water ( Dihydrogen Oxide )= Carbon Dioxide.

Yeast and fermentation

Fermentation is a chemical reaction that changes sugar into other things like Acids,Gases or alcohol. In yeast fermentation yeast feeds off sugar and produces Carbon dioxide and alcohol. It has to become active to do this. It becomes active when hot water comes. When we make bread the yeast makes carbon dioxide When it eats the natural sugars in wheat and makes the dough expand. When the dough bakes alcohol is evaporated and the yeast dies.

Graphs

Here are some graphs:

Pie graphs

Bar graphs

Heat factor

Heat gets yeast active. If it is not active it will not eat sugar.

Yeast mixture making Carbon dioxide

sources: wikipedia