Hello tstiemerling:
When I wrote, The effect is NOT produced by decompressing the beverage in the sense that the dissolved gas is released and exits the liquid in one method and not in the other, what I had in mind was this. Decompression in a human diver consists of a slow reduction in the pressure along with a loss of dissolved nitrogen by the circulatory system and the lungs. When the diver reaches surface pressure, most of the dissolved nitrogen is gone from the body tissues.
Opening a bottle of carbonated beverage slowly is not decompression in the sense that there is just as much carbon dioxide in the liquid before you opened the cap as afterwards. Whether one bottle fizzes and the other does not can only be attributed to something else than removal of carbon dioxide. The something is the size of the micronuclei. A quick removal of the cap allows the nuclei to rapidly expand by Boyles law. Carbon dioxide rapidly enters and the bubbles are now stabilized at this new enlarged radius.
In the case of a carbonated beverage, the soda will go flat because the gas bubbles rise to the surface and are lost. [If the bottle is quickly recapped, he bubbles quiet down and the liquid retains its effervescent quality.]
Now, while bubbles will form in both the diver and the soda pop, those in the soda will rise and be lost. Those in the diver remain in the tissues and will grow even more as dissolved nitrogen continues to enter.
You could see an even closer parallel if you were to unscrew the soda bottle cap at depth. (Carbonated beverages are at about 4 or 5 atm [absolute], about 90 fsw [absolute]). If the bottle were then slowly brought up, it would not effervesce much.
The opposite parallel is to bring a diver up quickly and unscrew his head. :11: [Not really]
Dr Deco :doctor:
