How does mentos and coke work

Use masking tape to tape the tube closed. Remove the pack of Mentos from the tube. Close off one end of the tube by cutting a little circle or square of paper and taping it to one end of the tube. Put the open end of your tube of Mentos on the card and place it directly over the opening of the soda bottle.

When you are ready, remove the card and let all the Mentos drop into the soda at once and quickly move out of the way. The carbon dioxide molecules attach to the surfaces of the Mentos like they did in the cup of soda. All those Mentos in a lot of soda make a lot of bubbles that rise to the surface and push the soda out in a big woosh!

Mentos and Diet Coke! Have you ever noticed that when you put a straw in soda pop, the straw gets a lot of bubbles on it? The drink on the right had just come out of the fridge we cooled the Mentos too , and the one on the left was at room temperature — what a difference! We made a video too…. At warmer temperature CO2 gas particles and other molecules have more energy.

Therefore, the particles move faster and want to escape the liquid they are dissolved in quickly compared to cooler temperatures. Try cracking open a can of warm fizzy drink and compare it to one just from the fridge! A 2 Litre bottle of coke or lemonade have 8 litres of CO2 dissolved in them. Have you noticed, your fizzy drink has tiny bubbles appearing on the side of the glass at a particular spot?

What Else Works? Shockingly enough, dropping just about anything into just about any kind of soda creates at least a little fizz. Even some pocket change made a bottle of root beer bubble up a bit. Does It Have to be Diet? Diet Coke and Coke Zero tend to go a bit higher than regular soda, because they have a little more carbonation and the sweeteners help make the reaction a little bigger.

New Scientist has this great summary of the explanation. Fun with Nucleation You can learn more about nucleation sites in action if you coat the inside of a small glass with vegetable oil. Move the glass around to get a nice smooth coating of oil and then pour in some soda. What happens? No fizz. No nucleation sites. Make sure that the bottle is on a level surface and stably standing straight. Why do you think all of this is important? Line up where the opening of the bottle is with the opening of your cartridge.

Quickly pull out the flat index card, releasing the Mentos candies into the bottle. Then step back without tipping the bottle over or disturbing the reaction. About how high did the eruption go? How much cola is left in the bottle? As with the first bottle, remove the cap and place the flat index card on top, covering the hole. Put on your eye protection and start the video camera. Quickly pull out the flat index card, releasing the crushed Mentos into the bottle, then step back without tipping the bottle over or disturbing the reaction.

How high did the eruption appear to go? How much liquid is left in the bottle? Is it more or less than the amount that was left when you used whole candies? If you videotaped the reactions, you can watch your videos now. What do you notice from the videos? Use a tape measure and blue painter's tape to mark off the height from the top of the bottle in meters. Then repeat this activity three times, with the bottle in front of the tape-marked wall, video taping it each time.