The effect of baking soda on water electrolysis Ok, so now I have a new question, what type of electrode should I use. I am intending to use a simple stripped wire as my electrode, but am concerned whether the average copper wire would react and create unwanted byproducts. Is it ok if I use copper, or is some other metal better suited to this experiment.

EDIT:

I believe more baking soda would result in more gases because more free floating ions means more conductivity, which would probably allow more redox reactions to occur, and thus allow more gases to be produced.
Definitely do not used stripped copper wire, unless you fancy a nice blue solution and electrodes that need constant replacement. You see, copper oxidizes quite readily, so you will end up with lots of $\ce{CuO}$, and a loss in the yield of $\ce{H2}$ and $\ce{O2}$. The best things would be noble metals like platinum, but stainless steel should do fine for your purposes/likely budget.