system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why are drinks carbonated with carbon dioxide instead of another gas?
gpt
CO2 was the first form of gas dissolved in soft drinks.  When you make root beer from scratch the yeast will consume the sugar to produce CO2 as a waste product.  When in a sealed container, the gas will dissolve into solution.  It made for a nice effect, you open the container and the gas release would create a fizz.  When soft drinks moved to the soda fountain it made sense to recreate the fizz.  CO2 was the logical gas of choice because the additional 'bite' created by the carbonic acid formed from the dissolved gas in the soft drink.  This kept everything the same as individually made soft drinks and resulted in the continued popularity of soft drinks.