The rms roughness of a 100m2 image acquired in the AFM. Remember, when youre doing an experiment, you can only change one variable. Search for other works by this author on: Mentos and the scientific method: A sweet combination. SEM images of table salt, acquired with a beam energy of 5.0kV and a spot size of 5nm. Webfeaturing the famous Diet Coke and Mentos experiment and knew its basic Further research yielded the following background information. (As discussed, part of the reason that the Wint-o-Green reaction took more time is due to the increased fall times.) What is the aim of the Coke and Mentos experiment? From Table III we see that higher temperatures lead to larger eruptions. Why does Diet Coke and Mentos explode more than regular Coke? All of our results seem to contradict the aforementioned Mythbusters experiment. 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. The goal of this project is to explore the eruption of carbon dioxide when the candy Mentos dissolves in Diet Coke. The video was titled Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments. The diet coke erupted like a volcano. But it has nothing to do with the mint Mentos actual flavor. Conclusion: The conclusion is a brief summary of the main findings of the study and their implications. WebFun Science Experiments // Mentos and Coke / Soda ExperimentIncludes BOTH US size and Australian A4 sized files/spelling!This fun experiment explores the physical reaction The answer is yes. If you decide to create an account with us in the future, you will need to enable cookies before doing so. The seltzer water and tonic water trials were 1l bottles with 16g of Mint Mentos added; all other trials were 30g of solid material added to a 2l bottle of liquid. This hands-on experiment is easy to do and simply involves dropping Mentos into a bottle of diet soda and running away. Use this worksheet to help you record your observations after doing this experiment. Conclusion: The conclusion is a brief summary of the main findings of the study and their implications. Coke possesses been which preferred mark through all other coke, spite one preference for Pepsi in blind taste tests. Experiment with your sense of taste and your sense of smell with this simple experiment! To use the Mentos Geyser for a science fair project, youll to turn this cool science activity into a real science experiment. This must been coined as the Pepsi Paradox. Using any more than seven Mentos mints is just a waste, according to these soda-soaked science enthusiasts. Hall, Jonathan Hearing, Leander Hutton, Kelly Izlar, Cully Little, James Lugenbell, Michael Mace, Bonnie Myers, Carla Penders, Zach Russell, Shane Shields, Adrian Steffen, Tony Sturtzel, and Zach Yokley. Because the level of carbonation in these products might be different from the Coke products, the seltzer and tonic water results should be considered independently from the Coca-Cola product trials. We found that the Diet CokeMint Mentos reaction lasted 3.8s, the Diet CokeFruit Mentos reaction lasted 3.6s, and the Diet CokeWint-o-Green reaction lasted 4.9s. This chemistry science kit includes activities for solo and group experiments, making it a fantastic addition to your classroom or for fun at home. [13] The Diet Coke and Mentos geyser experiment became an internet sensation in September 2005. The goal of this project is to explore the eruption of carbon dioxide when the candy Mentos dissolves in Diet Coke. The quantitative roughness information detailed in Table V was taken from this image. The colorful nature of this chemistry experiment kit introduces your child to basic concepts of volume, measurement and chemical reactions in a safe, no-mess way. Coke has a pH of 2.3 and it made intuitive sense that an acid-base reaction could explain the sudden explosion of sugar. Diet Cola and Mentos This will help you make an informed guess as to what will happen. This makes the cleanup process after the experiment easier, and less gross, as nobody would want to be all covered in sugary goop, especially on a hot summer day! While a Mentos candy contains millions of cavities, it is likely that only about 100,000 cavities actively nucleate bubbles on any single Mentos candy placed in a carbonated beverage.[19][25]. WebMentos and Diet Coke Experiment. [18], The eruption is caused by a physical reaction, rather than any chemical reaction. EepyBird.com Entertainment for the Curious Mind. A Diet Coke and Mentos eruption (also known as a soda geyser) is a reaction between the carbonated beverage Diet Coke and Mentos mints that causes the beverage to be expelled from its container. 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?" Carbon dioxide is the chemical compound that consists of two oxygen atoms bonded to a carbon atom. The blend of Coke Zero and Mentos just works out the strongest. Thanks also to Guichuan Hou and Phil Russell for their help in acquiring the SEM images, and to Donovan Leonard for his help in acquiring some of the AFM images. Science teachers found that Mentos candies had the same effect when dropped into a bottle of any carbonated soft drink. I also posted the video on a new online video-sharing site called YouTube (YouTube was only seven months old at that time). The question in the Some helpful comments were made by the anonymous referees. Why do Mentos turn ordinary bottles of diet soda into geysers of fun? Position the bottle on the ground so that it will not tip over. The Diet Coke and Mentos reaction is a popular experiment or demonstration in part because it inspires students to wonder, and inquiry-driven labs and active-learning Because Mentos mints didnt have holes in the middle like LifeSavers, getting them into the bottle was a little tricky. The hypothesis was that if unaltered mentos were dropped into coke, then they would create a more explosive reaction than any of the altered mentos. To switch between accounts click on the account below. All fizz shooting out in one strong plume. Compare the contact angle results in Table V for pure water (=85), sugar water (=80), and aspartame dissolved in water (=77). The Mythbusters identified the active ingredients in the Diet Coke that contribute to the Mint MentosDiet Coke reaction: caffeine, aspartame, and potassium benzoate, a preservative.1 As shown by the agreement within the 10% experimental error of the mass lost and distance traveled by the sodas spray for Mint Mentos in Diet Coke compared to Mint Mentos in Caffeine Free Diet Coke (see Tables I and II), the presence or absence of caffeine in the beverages contributes little to the reaction. This bubbling process is called nucleation. [27][28] Thus, the geyser reaction will still work even using sugared drinks, but diet is commonly used both for the sake of a larger geyser as well as to avoid having to clean up the stickier residue left by a sugared soda. What do your results reveal about the effect that the number of Mentos has on the height of the geyser? What is the conclusion of Coke and Mentos? Repeat the same procedure for the bottle of soda at room temperature and then again for the bottle of warm soda. What factors made dabbawala system successful? Do they make motorcycle helmets for kids? . Hypothesis: The larger the number of mentos, and the warmer the temperature of the soda, the higher the reaction will be. Learn more about how plants work with this cool celery experiment! However, scientists are finding that theres more to this spectacular demonstration than meets the eye. This science kit seeks to challenge kids to solve problems in creative ways that will prepare them for future science classes and nurture their lifelong imagination. The answer is a process called nucleation (Grobe & Voltz, n.d.). Then send your curated collection to your children, or put together your own custom lesson plan. Extending the Pepsi Paradox to Diet Cola - Office of the Vice The contestant ended up doing really well, going all the way to the $250,000 question; however, he walked away with $125,000. Soda geyser - Wikipedia Temperature of a 2l bottle of Diet Coke and mass lost during the reaction when 30g of Mint Mentos is added to the Diet Coke. According to our experiment, however, the SEM images show that the shiny, brightly colored coating on the Fruit Mentos is not uniform and rough patches are exposed (see Fig. The experiment became a subject of the television show MythBusters in 2006. A large fountain of coke then comes rushing out, oftentimes multiple metres in the air, causing a sticky mess all over the place. American Crystallographic Association, Inc. AVS: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces and Processing, www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000109, Paragliders' launch trajectory is universal, On the bifurcation behavior of a folded notebook page, Rosalind Franklin's X-ray photo of DNA as an undergraduate optical diffraction experiment, Introducing quantum mechanics through its historical roots: The hydrogen Rydberg atom viewed through the lens of the old quantum theory, The discovery of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, Sensory evaluation and electronic tongue analysis for sweetener recognition in coke drinks. The Mentos And Coke Volcano Experiment. Make sure the candies are in line with the mouth of the bottle. WebFound the trial with soda and Mentos at Steve Spangler Science, with tutorial on how at make a huge explosion. Adding salt to soda also causes it to foam because thousands of little bubbles form on the surface of each grain of salt. The majority of us have probably experimented with dropping multiple sugary, round mentos into a bottle filled to the brim with coke. The bottom line was that we needed to find a way to standardize the drop of those Mentos mints. The addition of the Mentos leads to the rapid nucleation of carbon dioxide gas bubbles, degassing the solution:[2][19][20][21][22], The conversion of dissolved carbon dioxide to gaseous carbon dioxide forms rapidly expanding gas bubbles in the soda, which pushes the beverage contents out of the container. The first Coke and Mentos Experiment was conducted on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1999 by The Mareks Kid Scientists. Making science accessible and fun for youth. It truly is the perfect chemistry kit for kids who want to explore. [25] These results suggest that additives serve to enhance geyser heights not by decreasing surface tension, but rather by decreasing bubble coalescence. Thank you so much. Soda is made of sugar or artificial sweetener, flavoring, water and preservatives. and Mentos Experiment You want the candies going in the bottle and not falling over the side. The participant got it right for $8,000, saying: I saw it on TV, and I bought Mentos and a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke. Figure 1(b) shows rough patches and nooks and crannies in the salt, which are also excellent growth sites. Once youve got your location squared away and your supplies gathered, carefully open the bottle of diet soda. Make your Mentos drop easier and your geyser spray higher with the Geyser Tube! The physical characteristics of Mentos (surface roughness) have the effect of drastically reducing the activation energy for carbon dioxide bubble formation so that the nucleation rate becomes exceedingly high. [31] As for the Mentos, many things work to nucleate carbonated beverages such as other candy, metal and ceramic spheres,[32] and even sand.[33][34]. What is inside Mentos and cola that reacts with each other causing the eruption? Observe the eruptionheight, trajectory, duration, etc. It proved challenging to get away from that bottle before it exploded. Science of Mentos-Diet Coke explosions explained. Explore the science of building polymers by cross-linking long chains of molecules. The reaction has been performed numerous times on television and the Internet, but has not been systematically studied. Try placing the soda bottle next to the wall of a brick building, after getting permission from the buildings owner, of course. 4). The Diet The higher magnification image of the Fruit Mentos is zoomed in on one of the rougher patches. Well, its probably not pretty. With 5 or 6 mentos the explosion went only 330 and 310 cm high. As the Mentos candy sinks in the bottle, the candy causes the production of more and more carbon dioxide bubbles, and the rising bubbles react with carbon dioxide that is still dissolved in the soda to cause more carbon dioxide to be freed and create even more bubbles, resulting in the eruption. Fast-moving mentos create larger explosions while slow, powdered mentos create tiny ones (Muir, 2008). It has also been shown that a wide variety of beverage additives such as sugars, citric acid, and natural flavors can also enhance fountain heights. Note be sure to only try this experiment with a responsible adult! The warmer the liquid, thelessgas can be dissolved in that liquid. Monday Friday The Diet Coke and Mentos experiment results from the nucleation of carbon dioxide from liquid to gas. Sticking a finger into a glass of soda will result in the formation of tiny bubbles full of carbon dioxide that stick to the skin. Drop the Mentos into the diet soda. Load seven Mentos into your paper roll or yourGeyser Tubeand drop them into the soda and immediately record the data. The scale bars represent the following lengths: (a) 2.0mm; (b) 100m, (c) 50m, and (d) 20m. A 10% difference is comparable to the uncertainty in our experiments, and hence it is difficult to observe significant differences in the results for Diet Coke compared to Caffeine Free Diet Coke. KUSA-TV News posted that original video on their website along with my blog post titled, News Anchor Gets Soaked! Within a few weeks, links to the video and my blog entry numbered in the thousands. What is the dependent variable in Coke and Mentos experiment? They cited the gum arabic and gelatin in the Mentos, and the caffeine, potassium benzoate, and aspartame in Diet Coke as the main contributors to the explosive reaction. [20][12][14][17] It has been claimed that gelatin and gum arabic in the Mentos candy enhance the fountain,[12][14][26] but experiments have shown that these candy additives do not affect the fountain. The candies catalyze the release of gas from the beverage, which creates an eruption that pushes most of the liquid up and out of the bottle. SEM images of Mint Mentos [(a) and (c)] and Fruit Mentos with a candy coating [(b) and (d)]. ", "MythBusters: Diet Coke and Mentos MiniMyth", "Toying with the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment", "How Many Bubbles Are in the Foam Produced during the Candy-Cola Soda Geyser? We knew the Mentos Geyser Experiment was a popular experiment when a producer from ABCs Who Wants to Be a Millionaire called for help when writing a question. Based on the Data, the hypothesis of my experiment (If the Diet Coke is heated, then it will have the highest geyser, because the atoms will be moving more rapidly and act as a catalyst) was proven to be correct. Please follow us on Medium and on Instagram, thanks! ", "Orchestrated Chaos: A Mentos Tribute to Eepybird.com", About.com Chemistry page with instructions, "Watch Scientists Conduct the Mentos and Diet Coke Experiment at 14,000 Feet", "Diet Coke and Mentos: What is really behind this physical reaction? Turn from eerie green to blood red when you hold it up to the light. Part of the scientific method is making a prediction called a hypothesis. This experiment investigates if small changes in your diet can alter your basal body temperature. 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. Youve probably heard that you shouldnt eat Mentos while you drink Coke, but why is that? 1 So the relatively small amount of caffeine in a 2 l bottle of Coke doesnt significantly affect the reaction. The other bottles were heated in a water bath on a hot plate for approximately 1020min. Diet Coke and Mentos Retrieved from https://easyscienceforkids.com/diet-coke-and-mentos-video-for-kids/. The parameter K changes with temperature, generally increasing as the temperature increases. Mentos In this project, you'll create Oersted's experiment, which relates to how electric currents create magnetic fields. Unfortunately, Kim got so caught up in the fun that she forgot to do both and got soaked in Diet Coke on live television! Its also important that all of the test bottles are stored in the same place so that the liquid in each bottle is the same temperature. This conclusion is supported by our contact angle measurements showing a reduced contact angle for aspartame and water in contrast to pure water or sugar water (see Table IV). To directly compare the aspartame with the potassium benzoate we dropped 16g of Mint Mentos into a 1l bottle of seltzer water with 7.5g of added potassium benzoate and the same amount to a 1l bottle of seltzer water with 7.5g of added aspartame. However, the importance of the presence of surfactants in the Mentos cannot be denied. Stir up some enthusiasm for experimentation with this candy-cracking science experiment! Many consider Diet Coke to be the optimal option, and it's been studied and confirmed as having the strongest effect. Place the second bottle in a place where it will reach room temperature overnight. We put 4 mentos pieces into the bottle of diet coke. The uncertainty of the fall times was roughly 10%. This was demonstrated in an experiment that tested 15 types of carbonated beverages with Mentos. For example, it has been suggested that the higher viscosity of regular sodas as compared to diet sodas could inhibit the formation of the fountain in regular sodas, leading to shorter fountains. Unscrew soda and put safety goggles on. The scale bar for (a) is 100m and for (b) is 20m. Watch as they vanish right before your eyes in water as they grow. Conjure a magical genie inside a root beer bottle, awaken a thirsty ghost, use your amazing brainpower to read minds, and more. Hypothesis: If a certain amount of Mentos are dropped into a container of soda, then the container with the most Mentos dropped into it will produce the most CO2 at the fastest rate. If the reaction occurs over a longer time, more mass can be lost with a smaller explosion. Most importantly, the author would like to thank the students of PHY2210 for their hard work and great ideas, including Will Beuttell, Jason Burch, Blake Clark, Robert Duke, Jama Greene, A.J. Average mass lost during the reaction. How Does Diet Affect Your Body Temperature? The uncertainties are approximately 10%. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-coke-mentos/. What did you observe after you put Mentos candies into the soda bottle? The dependent variable is the the Diet Coke with the mentos because it depends on the mentos to have a chemical response. Warm soda tends to fizz much more than cold soda because of the solubility of gases in liquids. What is inside Mentos and Cola that reacts with each other causing the eruption? What causes the explosion when Mentos are dropped into the Diet Coke? As the Mentos candy sinks in the bottle, the candy causes the production of more and more carbon dioxide bubbles, and the rising bubbles react with carbon dioxide that is still dissolved in the soda to cause more carbon dioxide to be freed and create even more bubbles, resulting in the eruption. He will be performing the crushed vs whole candy in a diet coke. Set up 16oz coke bottle and attach geyser tube and launch. Conclusion: The more mentos you put in a bottle of pop does not necessarily mean a larger explosion. The measured contact angles and minimum works for bubble formation are given in Table IV. To add insult to injury, she did it two more times. As the Mentos candy sinks in the bottle of soda, the candy causes the production of more and more carbon dioxide bubbles. The rising bubbles react with carbon dioxide that is still dissolved in the soda to cause more carbon dioxide to be freed and create even more bubbles. Later on in the experiment, youll be invited to compare the geyser power of diet versus regular soda, but for now well start with a 2-liter bottle of diet soda. Overall I expect the Pepsi and Mentos to create a fountain like reaction. But there was one added bonus: the restricted hole at the top of the plastic tube helped to build up more pressure in the bottle and launched the soda up to 30 feet into the air! Pepper has the strongest reaction. ", "Tribonucleation: A New Mechanism for Generating the Soda Geyser", "The problem with the Coke & Mentos experiment that few people know about", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Soda_geyser&oldid=1149860252, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 14 April 2023, at 21:58. Note that the contact angle for the aspartame and potassium benzoate solutions is less than the contact angle for pure water, indicating a decrease in the surface tension. We enable strictly necessary cookies to give you the best possible experience on Education.com. During the commercial break, I told Kim what was going to happen and reminded her to pull her hand out of the way of the erupting geyser and to run backward. The work required to form a bubble in sugar water and aspartame is 74% and 67%, respectively, of the work required to form a bubble in pure water. [19], While Diet Coke and Mentos are the most common way to make a soda geyser, they are not the only options. The most striking example is the molecular sieve beads, which lost a significant amount of mass but only traveled 2.5ft. Figure 1(a) qualitatively demonstrates that the small cubic table salt grains have a high surface area to volume ratio, thus providing many growth sites for the carbon dioxide in the Diet Coke. St. Helens and Mt. https://easyscienceforkids.com/diet-coke-and-mentos-video-for-kids/. Parts of science investigatory project. Science Investigatory State briefly what you tried, what were your results, and what you might do differently next time. Write down what happened when you dropped the Mentos in the coke. The Fruit Mentos and the Mint Mentos reaction lost roughly the same amount of mass, but the Fruit Mentos reaction took place over a shorter time and therefore the spray traveled much farther than the Mint Mentos reactions. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-coke-mentos/. If you want to examine the volume of the geyser, note the volume of a full bottle of soda before you drop the Mentos into it. An impressive acid-base reaction can be generated by adding baking soda to Diet Coke. This will happen because the dissolved CO2 will provide the most nucleation sites to come out of the solution. Then, make comparisons, create a chart with your data and draw your conclusions. Open the soda bottle, set it down and write down what you observe about it. If the partial pressure of the gas above the liquid is higher, then more gas can be dissolved in the liquid. [30] However, any carbonated beverage will work. Oddly enough, this container was actually a pre-form or 2-liter soda bottle before it was blown up into a big bottle. WebDiet coke and mentos explained: We explain the science behind the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment: The mint sweets provide a surface for the gas in the cola to cling on to. The dependent variable was the height of the rise of Coca-Cola. What happens when you put Mentos in soda? When they are dropped into the soda, these sharp edges break the bonds between the dissolved gas and water, allowing for the gas to turn into bubbles and escape (Science Buddies, 2012). http://www.eepybird.com/featured-video/coke-and-mentos-featured-video/science-of-coke-mentos/, https://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/blogs/diet-coke-takes-longer-for-flight-attendants-to-serve-on-airplanes-bubbles#:~:text=Sugar%20both%20increases%20viscosity%20and,bubbles%20that%20pop%20much%20slower.%22&text=In%20the%20end%2C%20the%20total,out%20by%20a%20few%20seconds. What properties do coke and mentos have that enable them to react so vigorously with each other? The Mythbusters also correctly identified the roughness of the samples as one of the main causes of the reaction. Children will enjoy this hilarious story and use their hands to mix up a batch of Instant Worms. Hence it is the combination of a rough surface and the surfactant in the outer coating of the candy that causes the impressive reactions. but highly recommended!