Watch what happens when you freeze a can of Coke in liquid nitrogen

Although Professor Martyn Poliakoff said he has never, ever tasted Coca-Cola, he thought the sugary drink could make a good experiment subject.

Poliakoff and his team froze a can of Coke in -200 degrees celsius liquid nitrogen in the name of science for Periodic Videos.

They wanted to see what would happen when the Coke froze at such a low temperature. The professor hypothesised that the freezing process would push out all the carbon dioxide gas in the drink, since it's not soluble in ice, and the increased pressure would cause the can to burst.

First they dropped the Coke into the nitrogen:

And after about three minutes, the can split.

The liberated Coke froze into something that looked a bit like a meteorite.

A second can didn't split but the Coke inside turned into an icy powder instead:

In the interests of fairness, the team repeated the experiment with a bottle of Pepsi. Sadly the drink just froze inside the bottle.

"I got bored and left," the professor said.

Coke 1 Pepsi 0.

Watch the experiment in full below:

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