#8: Hydrochloric Kisses

I was eating a handful of half-metled Hershey Kisses when I found myself struggling to fully unwrap them. Then a thought occurred to me: what if I could remove the wrapping-foil using science? After pondering the question, I came up with an idea. I grabbed a small beaker and headed outside. There I filled the beaker with some hydrochloric acid (HCl) and a little bit of water. With my camera ready, I dropped a fully-foiled Hershey Kiss into the beaker and began to wait. It wasn't long before the shiny candy was writhing and bubbling. Eventually, all of the aluminum surrounding the chocolate had disintegrated into almost nothing.

The science behind what happened was simple. The hydrochloric acid ripped off the aluminum atoms forming aluminum chloride (AlCl3) and leftover hydrogen gas (H2). The hydrogen is what formed the bubbles which means that they were actually quite flammable. In the end, I was left with what seemed to be a perfectly unwrapped piece of milk chocolate. However, the HCl and aluminum that it absorbed probably made it extremely toxic. 

After a few minutes, the wrapping-foil surrounding the chocolate completely dissolved in the HCl.