Can find them at "vitamin" stores. Here's What Really Causes Diet Coke And Mentos To React. A few questions i would like answering: -how much of each should i consume? Last night's episode of Two and a Half Men just proves that one of the show's writers is a science geek with a sense of humor. I tried it aboutan hour ago, still no inflation results so far, I had 1 pack of mentos and a can of pepsi max (does pepsi max work?) What is the science behind the mentos and coke experiment? Diet Coke has an artificial sugar called aspartame that reduces its surface tension capabilities. Most Coca-Cola is kept carbonated by a sealed bottle, which creates a pressurized environment where the carbonated gas cant escape until the cap has been broken off or opened. So why do Mentos make so many bubbles? Since the Mentos merely facilitates the creation of bubbles, the candy will continue to act as a catalyst for carbon dioxide bubble formation until all of the surrounding CO2 has been exhausted in the bottle. I'm addicted to Crystal Pepsi: https://youtu.be/qEjy3dS6COs \"HAVE A CRYSTAL PEPSI DAY!\" - L.A. Doesn't work. A lack of sugar makes the soda mixture less viscous, given the presence of sweeteners, like aspartame, lowering the surface tension even more than usual. Mentos candies are not as smooth as they appear to the naked eye. This effect can be maximized to a certain extent by adding a few Mentos candies to a given soda bottle, although there is a breaking point where adding more candies doesnt make the geyser any more impressive. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. Theoretically speaking, any candy that has enough small pores like Mentos should be able to do this job. Imagine a glass that's being filled with water a single drop at a time. Origins: Mentos, a candy that has a soft, chewy interior encased in a slightly hard shell, is no longer just for noshing on when combined with a carbonated beverage in a closed environment that. Don't worry, legitimate scientists have actually studied this thing. 1. Also, stand clear of the bottle after you add the Mentos. This way, you can see which one erupts higher. Overall, theres no need to worry if youve done this once or twice before on a dare from a friend. Open the soda and place the index card over the bottle opening. Further versions of the story specified the deceased youngster was the taciturn "Mikey" of LIFE cereal commercials. Mentos dont only react with Coca-Cola. They also compared reactions using other fizzy liquids such as caffeine-free and sugary colas, as well as soda water and tonic water. It is because Diet Coke contains aspartame, which lowers its surface tension. The "child who died from combining Mentos and Coca-Cola" story is an updating of an older legend that began in 1979. Just getting the Mentos into your stomach will likely disrupt some of the surface. Add Tip. What Chemical In Mentos Makes Coca-Cola Explode? Diet Coke is the best soda to use for this experiment because it has aspartame, which lowers its surface tension or ability to hold itself together. First you need a 2 liter of diet coke and 2-3 packs of mentos. Its not recommended to do this, even for a party trick, but youll survive with only your pride wounded overall. The carbon dioxide molecules are looking to attach themselves to any rough surface. John Gilchrist, the actor who portrayed Mikey as a child, is alive and well today. This keeps the bubble growth going. Therefore, diet soda is better than regular soda if you want to make the biggest Mentos foam geyser possible. ", 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. You may want an adult to help you crush the Mentos candies. There is no danger in eating Mentos mints while drinking Coca-Cola. The bubbles that appear on the surface of Mentos must then travel a further difference to reach the surface of the soda, giving them more time and space to disrupt the solution. "This was a good project for my students to study because there was still some mystery to it.". Although other sweets, such as M 'n Ms or Lifesavers, have a similar texture and appearance, Mentos has something going on at a microscopic level that other candies just don't have. Thread the trailing string length through the bottle cap. I used the cheapest brands available in our local supermarket. This led to the gum shooting up my nose and sticking there. A&W 1/3 Pound Burger Failure Fact Check: Are Americans Really That Bad at Fractions? Next topic: Old 3 part inflation story. Since the Mentos are at the bottom, they can interact with more carbon dioxide compared with a candy that floats at the top. As the bubbles get bigger, they detach from the Mentos and race to the top of the soda. The reaction is caused by a process called nucleation, whereby the carbon dioxide in the soda is attracted to dozens of tiny pores on the surface of the Mentos, causing so much pressure that the . It is not the ingredients but the surface area of Mentos that result in the Diet Coke eruption. And most reports of death involve someone eating Mentos rather than swallowing them, which would probably cause little to know reaction. Mentos are also fairly dense and sink rapidly, quickly creating bubbles that seed further bubbles as they rise. To conduct this experiment, first start off by finding a location that can be easily cleaned or hosed off, such as an open area outside. If you have health and safety related questions, visitHSE.gov.uk. Maybe your stomach would explode! Coca-Cola is a carbonated beverage that is full of dissolved carbon dioxide. No chemical reaction occurs either way, Mentos+Coke is a physical reaction. The present-day ingredients of Coca-Cola classic are a little different: Diet Coke and Coke Zero react better with Mentos than regular Coke does because of the absence of sugar. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. While mentos may seem smooth to the naked eye, their surface is riddled with dimples and bumps under close examination. an experiment that tested 15 types of carbonated beverages with Mentos, 11b 13 Aston Fields Road,Whitehouse Industrial Estate, Runcorn, Cheshire, WA7 3DL. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Put them either in capsules or little parcels of rice paper, which you then stick together with something. You should also follow any safety advice and precautions listed on the product label. It's true that most of the people that do it do indeed inflate from simply having that much soda in them, but if you can hold the gas down I don't think there's anything stopping you from inflating. However, the American Chemical Society provides step-by-step instructions on how to safely make a Mentos soda fountain, so this is one experiment you can try at home. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. The results showed that Diet Coke created the most spectacular explosions with either fruit or mint Mentos, the fountains travelling a horizontal distance of up to 7 metres. Anything that breaks them apart allows for bubbles of carbon dioxide gas to form in the solution. They, too, concluded that the "surface roughness" of the Mentos is "one of the main causes of the reaction. Take the geyser tube and put all the mentos in it from the packet. * Fizzy water and gum tragacanth. Place the soda bottle outside in and area that can get dirty. You press it onto a heap of half-capsules of one side, press an identical one onto a heap of the other half of capsules, cover one layer in powder and place the other one precisely on top of it, capsules down. Invert the test tube, holding the cover in place. you got good ideas, let me know!WOOOOOW. It certainly wont be comfortable and Mentos, but there arent any real health risks from doing so. It is also found in many foods, including meat and fish. It could easily have got quite serious, i think. ", As it sinks, the Mentos produces more bubbles, which react with carbon dioxide in the soda, rewarding you with a Diet Coke geyser. It makes it a rather impractical exercise, i think. Regular soda uses sugar or corn syrup to derive most of its sweetening flavor, but diet soda eschews these ingredients in the name of fewer calories and better health. Diet soda does work a bit better than regular soda, but the main reason it gets used is because it doesn't leave a sticky residue on surfaces. Thus, the texture of Mentos alone increases the rate of nucleation. The narrow neck of the bottle also intensifies the pressure and speed because it forces the flow rate to increase. A lot of people, myself included, believe the diet coke + Mentos reaction is the same as the baking soda + vinegar "volcano" reactions that we all did as kids. Use the needle to thread the string through four Mentos, leaving a 10cm length of sting trailing off the Mentos Bundle. Bottled sodas are kept under pressure so that more carbon dioxide can be forced into solution. Measurements of the pH of the Coke before and after the experiments showed that its acidity did not change, ruling out the idea that a simple acid-base reaction drives the fountains. Measurements showed that the surface tension in water containing the sweetener aspartame is lower than in sugary water, explaining why Diet Coke creates more dramatic fountains than sugary Coke. * Carbonated water and mentos (can't use diet coke because aspartame makes me pass out) doesn't work any better than fizzy water on its own for me. Gotta do it fast, though. As a result, they are important biologically, industrially, and environmentally. My next plan is to use powdered chalk and fizzy water. Course, it could be just the soda inflating me. A study in the US has identified the prime. Each bottle tested had a two-litre capacity, and eleven Mentos were introduced to each bottle. For instance, most students are familiar with baking soda and vinegar volcanos, have dabbled in watering plants with different types of liquid, and have attempted to make a battery out of a potato. Inflation from diet coke and mentos can cause an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and body I could feel my belly expanding to the point of discomfort. Furthermore, dropping the Mentos into the soda bottle with force to make it descend quickly will force more carbon dioxide through its small pores and make a faster reaction were more bubbles are created in a short amount of time. Scooping up powder and cramming it into them for an hour sucks :/. Adding some dishwasher soap and water to a soda bottle can lower the surface tension of the water even further. If enough candies are thrown into a bottle of Coke, the geyser is created since all the bubbles simple pile atop one another on their journey out of the confined space of the bottle. While we cant really know what kind of damage this kid may have done to his stomach, the results were fairly predictable. Not all such videos found on the Web are on the up-and-up, however, including the famed "Pepsi Girl" clip, which purports to document a demise caused by the ingestion of a mixture of Mentos and Coca-Cola. Do fruit Mentos work with Coke? There is an urban legend that eating mentos while drinking soda could cause a person's stomach to burst. If your eruption wasn't everything you'd hoped for, make sure you have fresh ingredients. It is likely that these stories are exaggerated and have been spread on the Internet for entertainment purposes. Why is Diet Coke a better choice for this experiment than other sodas? The average reaction time for regular coke was 2.1 seconds at 0 degrees, and reduced to 1.1 seconds at 80 degrees. Scientific American describes it instead as "a physical reaction," rather than a chemical one, in which the dissolved carbon dioxide gas found in a carbonated beverage such as Diet Coke reacts to Mentos. Was Coca-Cola the First Soda to Use Santa In Advertisements? Common bases are found glass cleaners (ammonia), antacid tablets (carbonate), baking soda (also carbonate), and toothpaste (fluoride). If you haven't heard about the Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment then you have probably been living under a rock. The resulting splash from diet soda with this mixture would surely be something to record. * Citric acid and bicarbonate of soda should release lots of carbon dioxide. It's possible that the twitches and the tingling i got were psychosomatic, of course, but it seems to me that if i just use calcium carbonate and fizzy water the situation is a lot more controllable because i don't have to think about all the other stuff. Mentos that drift peacefully through the soda will have a weaker reaction in comparison. The Mentos and Coke trick usually gets performed with diet cola. Part of the scientific method is making a prediction called a hypothesis. I don't burp much, so I hold it in anyway. Surface tension is the bond between molecules in the liquid. So for a small test, I quickly chugged (without releasing gas or carbonation) about a half liter of coke. Copyright 2023 @ Sodoapopcraft.com Watson-Publishing Limited Co. Telephone: +441414590217 Email: [emailprotected]. Answer (1 of 7): No. Watch the full video for a more detailed explanation. Bases are bitter and feel slippery to the touch. It is almost certainly not true that anyone has ever died from doing this. Any type of soda is pressurized to keep it fizzy inside the bottle. Then drink a little over half slowly in give or take 2 min. Acids also . In an . This is likely for two reasons. I'm a guy. With this in mind, the chemicals in Mentos also serve as foaming agents by facilitating the rapid release of CO2 gas. Once you drop the Mentos into the coke, stand back as it's VERY explosive. However, the failure of this explosive combination of candy and soda to cause any fatalities should not be taken as a ringing endorsement of chasing down a handful of Mentos with as much pop as can be gulped. The way this reaction works is, when Diet Coke's carbonation bubbles get into the pores of the mentos, enough carbon dioxide is made which causes the many explosion that happens when they are combined ( "Mental Floss" ). "These ingredients reduce the work required for bubble formation, allowing carbon dioxide to rapidly escape from the soda,"Coffey and her students found, after comparing the "contact angle for aspartame and water in contrast to pure water or sugar water.". Claim: A mixture of Mentos and Coca-Cola killed two Brazilian children. Both fruit and mint Mentos will work for this experiment. The Mentos experiment can be done with any soda or carbonated liquid. but then after an hour i realised my tummy had gone down, so it had risen, i just hadnt noticed alot lol. Here's an experiment to try at home regarding surface tension. You can also increase the effect by adding extra ingredients to a given soda. A package of the normal. Diet cola of any manufacture is regarded as the liquid of choice for creating a "Mentos eruption" or "Mentos effect" because a cola's brown color serves to make the reaction much more starkly dramatic in all its explosive glory, and diet versions of those sodas don't leave the same sticky residue that their sugared counterparts do (an aspect well worth considering when contemplating spraying a wide area that you may afterward be called upon to clean). [1] Other factors that affect the growth rate or total number of carbon dioxide bubbles also changed the geyser's height, such as temperature and the original surface tension of the soda. He kept drinking the Coke over time, and gas continued to be released in a more steady manner than would occur if Mentos were dropped into a bottle. Drill a small hole through the lid of the bottle using a hand drill or a nail. Mint candies are more basic, increasing the acid-base reaction, Mint candies are more acidic, increasing the acid-base reaction, Fruit candies have a more rough coating, decreasing nucleation sites, Fruit candies have a smoother coating, decreasing nucleation sites, http://www.appstate.edu/~coffeyts/DietCokeandMentos.pdf, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb6neBVtvsE, https://brilliant.org/wiki/why-do-mentos-explode-in-coke/. The gas form of carbon dioxide bonds with the water molecules present in the cola. also, i had to lay down to hold in the gas. When taken with fruit juice, creatine is more easily absorbed by the body. Pouring soda into a muddy hole in the ground does the same, so the Mentos are totally unnecessary. If you'd like to try more than one Mentos, roll them into a small paper tube to drop in. Why Do We Say a Fifth of Whiskey, Rum, or Vodka? That year, the grist being run through the rumor mill included the sad tale of a misadventuring tot who had gulped soda and ingested Pop Rocks, a carbonated candy known for producing a fizzling sensation in the mouth. But the amazing eruption that takes place when Mentos are dropped into Diet Coke is not a chemical reaction at all! All the carbon dioxide in the soda - all that fizz - is squeezed into the liquid and looking for a way out. Try a new bottle of Diet Coke and a new package of Mentos. haha at first i was like wtf man? [RAMUNE SODA FLAVORS], Will Soda Cans Explode in Checked Baggage? This is the same thing that happens to any other container with volatile ingredients. The Hypothesis The scientific method is an important way scientists make observations and come to conclusions. Experiments in a 2006 edition of the Discovery Channel programme Mythbusters suggested the chemicals responsible for the reaction are gum arabic and gelatine in the sweets, and caffeine, potassium benzoate and aspartame in the Coke. Mentos react with Diet Coke because their rough surfaces provide suitable sites for rapid growth of carbon dioxide bubbles, according to Mental Floss magazine. For instance, in photosynthesis, water and carbon dioxide are transformed into sugar. Finally, making your soda bottle warmer instead of colder will make the geyser higher and faster. Slowly and carefully open a new bottle of Diet Coke. Another classic scientific experiment that is often performed but uncommonly understood is the Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment. Surfactants lower the surface tension between two liquids, a liquid and a solid, or between a gas and a liquid. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. One reason is their large surfacetovolume ratio, which allows millions of bubbles to form from each piece. The original ingredients of Coca-Cola contained cocaine from coca leaves and caffeine-rich extracts from kola nuts. The 6"5 Beachball, Helium balloon, heck whatever is here! Almost everyone in middle school or high school has heard the urban legend: if you drink Coke and eat Mentos, youll explode! Hold Bottle by top with one hand place around the neck so that the bottle is upside down. Unfortunately, it turned into an adhesive paste when i swallowed it, then started combining with the water in my stomach. A Big ass explosion happenspretty damn cool. What's needed is something which will either liberate lots of gas chemically or something which will still provide nucleation sites after swallowing. Then I immediately chugged another half liter or so of coke. A two-litre bottle has about 15 grams of dissolved carbon dioxide, which, under the right conditions, becomes 8 litres of carbon dioxide gas in just a few seconds. when the gas builds up, your body will release it through belching. Opening a soda generates the characteristic 'pop' and 'hiss' sound many are familiar with. If drops are continually added, this bubble will grow and continually burst, spilling water down the sides of the glass. A study reveals why Mentos and Coke can be a dangerous combination. So you won't get the same reaction in your stomach. Rough-surfaced mints without the surfactant did not create such large fountains. Which brings us back to this article's topic, the ballyhooed death of a youngster who consumed this combination. Making Lots of Bubbles. Open the pack of Mentos and place all of them in the tube. Whats up people. She is also certified in secondary special education, biology, and physics in Massachusetts. "And if you have rough candy with a high ratio of surface area to volume, then there's more places for the bubbles to go.". The Truth About Raspberry or Strawberry Flavor from Beaver Glands. Apparently, we were dead wrong, as the paper points out: The pH of the diet Coke prior to the reaction was 3.0, and the pH of the diet Coke after the mint Mentos reaction was also 3.0. For all the liquid to leave through the opening, the upstream pressure then also has to increase, redirecting the flow of the Coke upwards and you know the rest: explosion. The effect it has on your acid levels is minimal, as long as you don't over do it (which is true for most things). This is because fruity Mentos have an extra coating of flavor which slows down the reaction time. Crushed Mentos that fell more slowly created puny fountains that only travelled about 30 centimetres. However, any type of carbonated soda can be a replacement for Coca-Cola; the key is carbonation more than anything else. also known as:. When you drop a Mentos into the soda, tiny bumps on the candy surface give the carbon dioxide molecules a nucleation site or place to stick. The Diet Coke and Mentos experiment results from the nucleation of carbon dioxide from liquid to gas. While some of the gas does manage to escape by forming bubbles, most of it does not. Collect the following materials: Place the pennies on a flat surface. Try to keep as much of the co2 in the coke ie not shaking it. Thus, the rates of nucleation are further increased. Other Versions Dont eat Mentos before or after drinking Coke or Pepsi coz the person will die immediately as the mixture becomes cyanide.. Was Coca Cola the only Soft Drink to Contain Cocaine? What Is The Chemical Structure Of Coca-Cola? It's been called the "vinegar and baking soda" reaction for a new generation. Diet Coke will work better than regular Coke for this experiment. But why is it called the "Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment" and not the "Coke and Mentos Experiment?" However, most of the carbonation is released from the soda as it is being drunk, so the pressure is lower and carbon dioxide is less likely to nucleate. Ok, so i was wonderin about coke and mentos inflation. I then quickly swallowed whole 3 mint mentos, using a small ammount of water to chase them down quickly. Your stomach will not explode. It turns out that Mentos have a very porous surface, with thousands of tiny indentations, perfect for nucleation. As previously stated, the surface of Mentos candies is what makes this reaction work. What type of physical reaction is Coke and Mentos? Their explanation is this process called nucleation. "All enquiries are treated as confidential - we never share your details", "We provide comprehensive technical support with every enquiry", "Our manufacturing facility is accredited to ISO 9001, ISO 13485, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001", Explore Chemistry at the Catalyst Science Discovery Centre, Your Own Body Is Actually The Cause of Sunburn, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google. Now, make a Mentos-and-soda fountain! Aluminum Foil: Should the Shiny Side be Up or Down When Cooking? There is an urban legend that eating mentos while drinking soda could cause a person's stomach to burst. However, the Coke and Mentos experiment does not only involve a physical change. If i'm using an acid too, for example tartaric or citric, the toxicity of bicarb, the acid and the compound resulting from the reaction are all important, as is the pH change of the internal environment. Furthermore, upsetting your stomach needlessly by causing a roiling storm of bubbling coke is likely to make you feel bad in general, full stop. Cans Of Bernard Dehydrated Water: What in the World is This? Drop several Mentos into a bottle of coke or lemonade, and a huge eruption of bubbles shoots out several meters high. Their explanation is this process called nucleation. Learn about the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment and discover the science behind why Mentos react to soda. anyways no expanding tummy as of yet. In effect, you have rendered the candy harmlessits just candy. The hands-on experiment involves dropping several Mentos Chewy Mints into a bottle of Diet Coke, which can cause a stream of the diet cola to shoot many feet into the air within seconds. That way you can do maybe a hundred at once. I do it regularly. Do you think Mentos would react with all liquids or just some? They covered this on Mythbusters. At 0 degrees, the reaction time was 1.7 seconds and decreased to 0.6 seconds when the temperature increased to 80 degrees. I think the cracks in the mentos will disappear during consumption. The sudden swell of carbon dioxide inside your stomach will need an escape. Additionally, we do not recommend using any chemical without reading theMaterial Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), which can be obtained from the manufacturer. All rights reserved. On the wax paper, carefully use the knife to crush and cut four Mentos candies into many small pieces, as shown in Figure 2 below. Your stomach is surrounded by many other internal organs that shift normally when you eat a large meal. However, your stomach is not enough of a seal to keep this sudden pressure change contained inside. Diet coke and mentos are both calorie-rich drinks, which can contribute to weight gain. These experiments are classic because they are excellent examples of basic scientific properties, which can be learned in a fun and interactive way. However, the only way to know what would happen would be to do an experiment. In effect, you have rendered the candy harmlessit's just candy. According to the Diet Coke and Mentos Eruption article, pop is supersaturated with gas. Now that this YouTuber has done us all a favor and performed this experiment, you do not have to. an experiment conducted by elizabeth snider for ede4304 october 9, 2006. diet coke and The only way you could reliably injure yourself from this stunt is if you did it over and over again. NEW CHALLENGE and it turned put great. diet soda eschews these ingredients in the name of fewer calories, dishwasher soap and water to a soda bottle. This is a fun and exciting experiment designed for 3rd-6th graders. this big guy just dropped another BOOMIN video so like it up. When analyzing my new approach to this time . There once was a rumor that two children had died because they ate Mentos and drank Coca-Cola at the same time. Beast Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP7vRMlZYx4R00Dj3Q4NjRA twitter https://twitter.com/Bunnyzilla206 instagram https://www.instagram.com/chafeel_harris/Subscribe to the L.A. A yard or large patio (without furniture nearby) with a sturdy, flat surface will work great. Forgot password? While there are many stories of people dying from suddenly exploding due to the rush of carbon dioxide expanding in their stomach, none of these stories are factually true and no video footage has ever been recorded of such an accident. Additionally, SodaPopCraft.com participates in other affiliate programs, Clickbank, CJ, ShareAsale and other sites and we sometimes get a commission through purchases made through our links. However, you may do untold damage to your stomach. a popular reaction:. Do not try such experiments yourself though. A mint-flavored mentos makes a geyser 5 meters high and a fruit-flavored mentos makes a geyser 2 meters high when the two candies are put into identical bottles of soda under identical experimental conditions. The short answer is that eating Mentos by chewing them up while drinking Coca-Cola, or any other soda, will little to no effect. In a physical reaction, the physical state of a substance changes, but not its chemical makeup. The eruption should happen instantaneously, so make sure to get out of the way to avoid being covered in sticky soda. Steaming hot water bursts into the air with the crowd watching in awe. This means that they sink to the bottom of the beverage. Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2006]. Buy chewing up the candy you have destroyed all the little pores that result in the large surface area responsible for the nucleation reaction. New user? I might be expecting too much. Create your account. June 15, 2008 -- The startling reaction between Diet Coke and Mentos sweets, made famous in thousands of YouTube videos, finally has a scientific explanation. [2]. Mentos candies typically have gum Arabic and gelatin in their formulas. There's a plastic layer with holes in. I could feel my belly expanding to the point of discomfort. you got good ideas, let me know!WOOOOOW TELL ME WHAT TO POST NEXT!Youtube is F*cked they disabled comments! Diet Coke is just more carbonated. 3. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. (Can You Bring Cans On A Plane). The nucleation reaction causes the rapid release of the carbon dioxide from the water, resulting in carbon dioxide gas which rapidly expands in the soda, pushing the liquid out of the bottle. Make sure you do it outside. Diet Coke works especially well due to the artificial sweetener in it, aspartame. Procedure: -. A classic experiment in chemistry is combining a small candy called Mentos with Diet Coke. This is where the carbon dioxide in the pop goes to the mentos (EpyBird.com), and create a bubbly stream that had so much pressure it shoots out of the container. It is a physical reaction rather than a chemical one. Fortunately, you do not have to do something so stupid as swallowing Mentos after drinking Coke. Numerous video clips of "Mentos eruptions" exist on the Internet; one needn't search all that diligently to stumble across scads of them. What makes Cola and Mentos react? Im a soft drinks enthusiast and Im bringing you all I know and research from the world of Soda Pop & Kombucha soft drinks. 460 Words2 Pages. I did this all in less than a minute. Combine Diet Coke and Mentos, and the result is explosiveDiet Coke shoots out of the bottle like a miniature, sticky Old Faithful. Diet coke has 135 calories in a 12 fluid ounce serving, while mentos has 90 calories. The carbon dioxide, once freed from its bonds, forms small bubbles that are lighter than water and which want to rise. Using tartaric acid might work better. Essentially, surface tension is the ability of a liquid to stick together due to its molecular properties. 2. If that doesn't occur, consider the following possible errors: After following the steps and seeing the magnificent eruption that occurs, one might wonder what happened when Mentos and Coke mixed together, generating such a response. They are covered in bumpy craters, which increases the total surface area. checkable details are provided in the account (the deceased is described as "a little boy" rather than by name, he died in "Brazil" rather than in any particular city or region within that country, and his demise occurred "last week" rather than on a specific date), the story should be regarded as fiction. * Just drinking fizzy water was fairly OK but made me cold to the extent of uncontrollable shivering. Chalk doesn't dissolve in water, so it should provide nucleation sites without getting soggy. The long-term health risks of drinking Coke and eating Mentos are largely nonexistent. mentos eruption. Thankfully, theres already a well-known escape hatch located at your mouth. I hope it inspires you to make your own healthier fizzy drinks at home. An experiment on Seltzer water, adding various types of solutes, produced the following results: Coca-Cola isnt a single chemical compound but rather a mixture of different chemicals. Aside from the microscopic structures on the outside of the Mentos shells, there are several chemicals that make Coca-Cola explode in this way. Why do Mentos and Diet Coke react so strongly? And if you add a big enough surfactant, you get a geyser. also causes the carbon dioxide gas to be released. But i think nucleation sites are the way to go, not an actual chemical reaction. The result is a massive eruption of foam, shooting stories high into the air. (2008). First you need a 2 liter of diet coke and 2-3 packs of mentos. Then eat . Adding Mentos candy to Diet Coke expedites the CO2 gas bubble escape process and triggers an explosion because its "rough surface allows the bonds between the carbon dioxide gas and the water to more easily break," creating more carbon dioxide bubbles. But caffeine-free Diet Coke did just as well, suggesting that caffeine does not accelerate the reaction, at least at the normal levels in the drink. The Mentos' surface area is conducive to carbon dioxide nucleation from the solution. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. Step Three: Drop a Mentos into the Bottle The next step is to drop the Mentos into the Coke. Buy chewing up the candy you have destroyed all the little pores that result in the large surface area responsible for the nucleation reaction. Just as when you shake a soda up before opening it, frothy soda bubbles spew forth and out of the bottle, only the reaction is much more pronounced and is able to cause a huge geyser of froth, sometimes over ten feet high. But the bubbling youll feel on your insides isnt easy or gentle, so it shouldnt be performed regularly. Swing Bottle over head and slam on ground sideways. The candy's shell is pocked with little nooks and crannies the beverage's carbon dioxide molecules are immediately drawn to, and the confection's relatively large surface area provides infinitely more such nooks and crannies (nucleation sites) than, say, an M&M would. You could use a dry mixture of two powders which generate carbon dioxide when they dissolve in water. This spectacle is mainly caused by a physical reaction that rapidly releases the dissolved carbon dioxide from the beverage. These microscopic irregularities on the Mentos' surface serve as nucleation sites where carbon dioxide bubbles form. The sudden swell of carbon dioxide inside your stomach will need an escape. Procedure: Stack the Mentos candies (approx. Drop your Mentos in the Diet Coke and step back - it's about to get messy! This is a messy experiment. When Diet Coke and Mentos join, the result should be a large fountain of foamy soda that erupts from the bottle. We dropped two Mentos into a bottle of normal Cola and Diet Cola. Don't worry, legitimate scientists have actually studied this thing. Ok, so I was curious about this as well. Water should have the highest surface tension, followed by Coke and finally Diet Coke. As the outlet explains, "those gas bubbles want to escape," and "to create bubbles, the carbon dioxide needs to interact with itself, which means that the carbon dioxide's bonds with water in Diet Coke must be broken.". This is essentially speeding up the process that makes sodas fizzy. It turns out Mentos were the best seeders for the reaction. You could even theoretically accomplish this with club soda, although the surface tension of the water wouldnt be weakened since club soda only has a few basic ingredients. All of the tiny pores on a Mentos surface break the polar bonds between the carbon dioxide and the water, which is why any Mentos candy with a smooth surface fails to produce any reaction at all. Plus, some folks swear diet sodas make for higher geysers. 1. The bubbles of nucleated gases that result from the surface of Mentos generate more bubbles to form. Why does the reaction happen? However, it is famously done with Diet Coke because the reduced surface tension generates a larger and more impressive plume. However, most of the carbonation is released from the soda as it is being drunk, so the pressure is lower and carbon dioxide is less likely to nucleate. Either way, it's funny. This sound is a result of nucleation. coke geyser. After a lot of debate, scientists are now saying that the primary cause of Coke & Mentos geysers is a physical reaction, not a chemical reaction. in action:. In order for more carbon dioxide bubbles to be created, the bonds with the ambient water in the soda have to be broken. But, it is true that a violent reaction occurs when you put Mentos into a bottle of Coke. Make sure you move quickly away from the Diet Coke and stand back from the eruption after you add the Mentos. When Mentos react with Coca-Cola, the following reaction is explosive, rapidly forming a fountain of pressurised Coke that then spurts out of the bottleneck and shoots into the air. Both of these ingredients lower the surface tension of the soda, which exacerbates the bubbling reaction and makes the geyser happen much more quickly. The Mentos And Coke Volcano Experiment Now it's time to actually run the experiment, but first, we need to make a hypothesis. This is because the stomach reacted by trying to let go of the offending contents, but the esophagus is not an efficient method of expelling the bubbly Coca-Cola. When this happens fast enough, you get a nice Diet Coke fountain. So, any rough surface inside the bottle will cause the carbon dioxide molecules to cluster together in a process called nucleation, which forms bubbles. Beware of the 20-foot stream of soda that will erupt when you pull off this experiment. It worked, but even quite small quantities seem to start messing up my internal environment and i got cramps and tingling. The Diet Coke and Mentos experiment results from an increased rate of nucleation. What they found was what I suspected, that the actual act of drinking the soda released much of the carbon dioxide. Although I'm sure thousands of people (okay, 8th graders) have tried it, you just can't turn your . What will happen if we put Mentos in Coke? But i think nucleation sites are the way to go, not an actual chemical reaction. Of course, this is for YouTube, so he continues drinking and swallowing candy. Still not quite getting it? When soda is poured into a glass, most of the carbon dioxide remains trapped under the water (or liquid) thanks to its surface tension. Thats why you feel bloated and your burp. Vomiting in excess is never a good sign since stomach acid wears away the cells of the esophagus and can cause mouth or throat cancer. I dunno, I've chewed up a mentos and dropped it in soda- still fizz's just fine. This pre-release of the gas prevents much of the dramatic release of the gas caused by the Mentos. She has a Master's Degree in Cellular and Molecular Physiology from Tufts Medical School and a Master's of Teaching from Simmons College. Carefully open the cap of the bottle of Coke. Thus, the process represented in Equation 1 - which powers the Coke and Mentos fountain - is a physical change. Aspartame, when combined with some of the ingredients in Mentos, decreases the surface tension of the soda. But it shouldnt be a regular trick in your party repertoire. Diet Coke and Mentos: What is really behind this physical reaction?. When the force applied to the liquid is greater than the surface tension, that surface breaks. Christina graduated with a Master's in biology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. NEW CHALLENGE and it turned put great. This was a total disaster! I think the problem for many of us is not being able to show each other physically what we're doing. The team also investigated the total mass lost in the fountain and the influence of the sweet's surface roughness. Here's what they found. This blog aims to bring you everything soda-related - so whether thats burning questions, tips, recipes, and even in-depth tutorials for making your own healthy soft drinks at home. Is it some sort of chemical reaction between Mentos and Diet Coke that is producing the explosion? Place a piece of wax paper on top of the cutting board. How To Get Rid of White Spots on Stainless Steel Pans. -which do I consume first? When Mentos react with Coca-Cola, the following reaction is explosive, rapidly forming a fountain of pressurised Coke that then spurts out of the bottleneck and shoots into the air. Because these molecules are thus less likely to hold onto each other, the solution is easier to disrupt. If you down a large amount of soda, the carbon dioxide is released. Instead, the vigour of the jets depends on various factors that affect the growth rate of carbon dioxide bubbles. If this were the case, eating Mentos and drinking soda may indeed be dangerous. It works fine, the coke fizzes because of the cracks in the mentos, not the chemical makeup. Create an account to start this course today. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest. The Coke-Mentos experiment is one of the most popular science experiments and also one of the most well-known. The two biggest factors affecting the geyser are the roughness of the candy used and the rate at which it sinks to the bottom of the soda bottle. Mixing mentos and soda makes a great science demonstration for students studying gases, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, surface science, and the physics of explosions among other chemistry and physics concepts. Read all Stars Jamie Hyneman Video Instruction. Please contact for permissions. Speed also matters, and the faster the Mentos sinks, the larger the eruption. First, you will need to prepare your crushed Mentos candies. Carbon dioxide is the force that pushes the liquid out of the bottle in a fraction of a second. A study in the US has identified the prime factors that drive the fizzy plumes from Coke bottles: the roughness of the sweet and how fast it plummets to the bottle's base. Since the escaping gas either comes out in the form of a long burp or in foam thats expelled through vomiting, the issue basically stops once the soda has evacuated your stomach in one way or another. We can see how much better Diet Coke and Coke Zero react with Mentos just by looking at the experiment we showed earlier: both of these sugar-free sodas produced fountains that exceeded 2.5 metres, while the fountain produced by regular Coke barely reached 1.5 metres. Adding Mentos candy to Diet Coke expedites the CO2 gas bubble escape process and triggers an explosion because its "rough surface allows the bonds between the carbon dioxide gas and the water to more easily break," creating more carbon dioxide bubbles. You'll suddenly experience an upsurge of soda foam and will likely burp or vomit up large amounts of the stuff in seconds. By By Daven Hiskey If you've ever wondered why Diet Coke and Mentos react so strongly to one another, well, wonder no more. If too much of the fizz escapes before you add the mento the reaction . The rough, dimply surfaces of Mentos encourage bubble growth because they efficiently disrupt the polar attractions between water molecules, creating bubble growth sites. That way you can do maybe a hundred at once. The famous Mentos-Coca-Cola reaction is a phenomenon known as nucleation. Nucleation is the process by which a state of matter becomes another state of matter on its own. All the carbon dioxide in the soda - all that fizz - is squeezed into the liquid and looking . How Long Do They Last? All content published on theReAgent.ieblog is for information only. It is the classic Diet Coke and Mentos "geyser" experiment, but with the added rigor of using the scientific method to answer the question "Which will cause a larger reaction: the sugar in regular Coke or the aspartame in Diet Coke?" The reaction between Diet Coke and mentos is caused by nucleation. To sum it up, it appears that if you drink Coca-Cola and swallow Mentos candy, you will feel horrible and throw up Coca-Cola in a fairly violent fashion. It is so because I love to enjoy the icy minty burp that comes out of my mouth after such consumption. People will do anything for YouTube views, so you can watch a dimwit do this experiment here. if the chalk method works well, tell me please :). Dangerous (Do not drink Coka-Cola and eat MENTOS together)Last week a little boy died in Brazil after eating MENTOS and drinking COCA COLA together. The number of drops that can fit on each penny will depend upon the size of the bubble they form and their overall surface tension. Diet soda stereotypically has a better reaction than regular soda. Surely, then, you dont want to eat Mentos while drinking Coca-Cola, lest this reaction occurs in your stomach. Just it's structure. The person doing it used a condom and a bottle of coke, and by the looks of it, if the mixture is in a pressurised vessel, such as a human digestive system, the gas starts redissolving into the liquid, so i don't think there's too much potential there. dr maxfield and dr shah married, emulador de gta san andreas, toe phalanx fracture orthobullets, importance of summative assessment in teaching learning process, jacob perez child actor, ryan homes window warranty, sense of belonging theory strayhorn, alexander tisch judge, david dunn headhunters, jurong west secondary school haunted, angular material header and footer stackblitz, tyrel jackson williams brothers, marilyn nault cause of death, british tennis players rankings 2021, the dungeon of naheulbeuk cast, , using a small test, i had to lay down to hold mentos and coke reaction in human body the.... 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