How can fermentation break glass if there’s no increase in matter in the bottle?

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I’m thinking of like when you bottle wine that’s still fermenting, and it explodes. I understand that the fermentation process raises the air pressure inside the bottle. What I *don’t* understand is how? When you pump air into a balloon, the air pressure rises because there are *more* air molecules entering the balloon.

With wine in a bottle, you have a fixed amount of matter at a certain temperature. I don’t understand how fermentation could increase air pressure in a closed system?

In: Physics

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Gas takes up more volume than liquid. Fermentation is converting liquids into gas.

Similar concept- If you boil a sealed container the pressure will increase enough to be dangerous. The water turning into steam from it’s liquid form drastically increases the air pressure by converting liquid into gas.

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