The many alternate uses for Coca-Cola -- are they worth the price of a 2-liter bottle?

You've probably heard about the many uses that Coca-Cola can be put to beyond quenching your thirst. Paul Michael of the blog WiseBread recently compiled a list of 51 such uses, from curing nausea to cleaning battery terminals, from cooking steak to cleaning the water in your pool, from improving your tan to greening up your lawn.

Some seem highly improbable (defrosting a frozen windshield by pouring a Coke on it? Drinking heated, flat Coke for decongestion? Adding it to your laundry to combat the smell of fish?) Others seem at least vaguely possible. How many of these are legit, and why would "The Real Thing" work for these tasks?

If it does do the job, you can credit one of three working ingredients in a bottle of Coke: phosphoric acid, sugar, or carbon dioxide. The acid is the same as the active ingredient in naval jelly, which is used to remove rust, but the soda has it in much lower concentration. Coke has a PH around 2.5, making it more acidic than apple juice but less than lemon juice.