Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments

[TheNewNo.2]

Is anybody else reminded of the dancing fountains at the Belagio in Vegas?

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[BlackAdder]

Wow
I thought I had too much time on MY hands :p
A hearty "Nice job" to those guys

[hungarianstud]

I saw this the other day. Its pretty kool.

[Italguido]

i did this on a much smaller scale a few weeks ago (by that i mean, with only one bottle) These guys are much cooler

[jdrock24]

I read about this in The Wall Street Journal. The article was about how Coke and Mentos love the free promotion. I don't know if Coke should love it since the guys spit it out at the end when they try to drink it.

[wooster]

My kids tried it the other day. Unfortunately for them, they did it inside. The kitchen was a mess and they had to spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning up.

[snatch]

does anyone know why/how it works, chemically?

I thought mentos always had a baking-soda kind of taste, maybe it's the classic acid/base trick, but with carbonation thrown into the mix?

Makes me really curious that it's diet coke, and not regular coke? does it work with any cola? or just coke???

So many questions :)

[wooster]

I took my class outside today to show it to them. We tried it yesterday with a small bottle and two Mentos, and it didn't work so well. We did it today with a two leter bottle and a whole pack and it was awesome.

[Italguido]

does anyone know why/how it works, chemically?

I thought mentos always had a baking-soda kind of taste, maybe it's the classic acid/base trick, but with carbonation thrown into the mix?

Makes me really curious that it's diet coke, and not regular coke? does it work with any cola? or just coke???

So many questions :)
It works with any carbonated drink, but seems to work better with diet drinks (not really sure why, might be that the atificial sweeteners affect the surface tension of the water differently)
the co2 is pumped into the bottle and is suspended in the liquid and therefore does not expand forming more bubbles. when you shake the bottle you release the co2 from the suspension by breaking the surface tension of the liquid. The gas then rushes out the bottle taking some soda along with it (as you can see)

Now, when you drop the mentos in the soda, the gelatin and gum from the disolving mentos break the surface tension. (therefore it takes less work for the gas to expand and form more bubbles. The tiny little nooks and crannies on the candy also help in the reaction. these "nucleation" sites help create spots for the c02 bubbles to form.

The bottle neck of the bottle creates a venture effect and allows for the 18foot spray.
All this is a pure physical reaction, not chemical

[ThaSpitefulWun]

that is pretty crazy... I need to try that!!