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Pearls will dissolve in vinegar. This is because pearls are mostly calcium carbonate (you can find calcium carbonate probably in your medicine cabinet--it is the main ingredient in stomach antacid tablets, such as Tums). Another common item that is calcium carbonate would be eggshells. It is just in a harder form.

Calcium carbonate, through chemical reactions to a weak acid solution (vinegar, also a red wine would be a weak acid solution), dissolves the chemical bonds in the calcium carbonate pearl and therefore, it will dissolve.

Give it a try yourself--get some eggshells, place them in a glass. Then add white vinegar. Give it a bit and see what happens to the eggshell.

I would really suggest that you not try this will real Pears--real pearls are expensive, and someone would be really, really angry that you destroyed expensive pearls--eggshells are so much better to do this experiment. No one is going to really mind that you have dissolved eggshells

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15y ago

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