Mentos + Soda = Explosion

Status: True
image Given the urban legend about kids eating pop rocks and soda, and then having their stomachs explode, I wouldn't have believed that mixing Mentos and soda could cause such a violent reaction. But after watching the video posted on WLTX's website, I do. (You need Windows Media Player to view it, and I had to click the "Trouble Viewing" button to make it work.) To summarize what the video shows, three Mentos are dropped into a bottle of soda, causing a geyser of soda to shoot up about three or four feet high out of the bottle. This really makes me wonder what would happen if you drank a can of soda and then downed a pack of Mentos. Personally I'm not planning to find out. I'm sure it wouldn't kill you, but I imagine it would fizz up into your throat and nose. WLTX provides this scientific explanation for the phenomenon:

Mentos contains a chemical known as ARABIC GUM (this is the ingredient that makes the mint "chewy"). This ingredient causes the surface tension of the water molecules to break even more easily, releasing more carbon dioxide gas at an astounding rate! .....The gas causes pressure to rapidly build inside the bottle which thrusts the soda upwards in a wonderful fountain-like BLAST!

Food

Posted on Fri Sep 23, 2005



Comments

:lol: if you people are so smart then try to drink it after-words 🧛
Posted by Orange Juice  on  Tue Oct 17, 2006  at  12:49 PM
😏 i did... i dont think anyone should.
Posted by Llama Lover  on  Tue Oct 17, 2006  at  12:51 PM
Ok soooooooooooo this is awesome and i cant wait till i do this 4 a project wit my friend........Anyway is the whole Gum Arabic true cuz i need to know these things.........lol.......jk........hahahahahahaha :exclaim:
Posted by SAMMY  on  Fri Oct 20, 2006  at  01:53 PM
It's a combination of things. Mythbusters did this experiment and found that if you drop Mentos into carbonated water (with none of the other ingredients of Diet Coke), you only get a very small reaction. Three Diet coke ingredients, caffeine, aspartame, and sodium benzoate, each increase the reaction if added to the carbonated water.

They concluded that the irregular surface of the Mentos provided nucleation sites, although there was a serious flaw in their reasoning (they noted that a glazed candy with the same ingredients did not produce a reaction, but forgot to mention that only the glaze, and not the ingredients in the rest of the candy, would come into contact with the liquid).
Posted by Kari Byron's future husband  on  Mon Oct 23, 2006  at  02:40 PM
this experiment sounds fun and i cant wait to test it for my science fair project FUN FUN FUN!!!
Posted by brittanyyd  on  Sun Nov 05, 2006  at  06:05 PM
sweet, thats an awsome expieriment to try at school. im also planing to contruct a small bomb just for fun using the presure from pop and mentos.
Posted by mr. x  on  Fri Nov 10, 2006  at  08:19 AM
lol, this is so much fun to do.
rofl, its so awsome its awsome.
i think we need an Alpaka
whos with me?
its a type of llama
Posted by Stone  on  Mon Nov 27, 2006  at  03:51 AM
god the reason it fizzes so much is it sinks to the bottom of the bottle
Posted by smarterthenyou  on  Mon Dec 04, 2006  at  03:37 PM
heyy youuu your expieriment was really cool im amazed and im going to grow up and study this with my friend charlett we're going to be BIG scientists one day. Shes my bff(best friend forever)thank for your inspirations we love you!


BOB
Posted by bob and charlett  on  Fri Dec 15, 2006  at  08:33 AM
my dklasfj tried it and it died
Posted by sandy  on  Wed Jan 03, 2007  at  06:37 PM
Ummm, why do people keep saying that it works best with diet cola? The main ingredient for the reaction is simply the CO2 in the sugar-water.

Vernor's Gingerale has the most of any beverage that I have found.

However, other such ingredients as artificial-sweetener and welsewhat may help get the catalyst started. But the mentos thing will work with any carbonated beverage. The more carbonation = the higher the explosion, up to a point anyways.

My record with a 2L is 24 ft.
Posted by Victor  on  Sat Jan 06, 2007  at  02:51 PM
ok well first of all you should punch a hole in the top of the bottle lid. You can do this with a nail and hammer. (keep the nail that you used because you wil need it later). Buy some chewing gum and mentos. Then chew the chewing gum for a while just enough so that its all soft and sticky. Then stick it to the lid making sure that you cover the hole. Then stick your mentos to the chewing gum.(if you want to add more then 1 mentos put another layer of chewing gum on top of the mentos then apply another mentos etc.)then screw the lid back on carefully. and get your nail and push it through the hole carefully but quickly. then stand back fast and watch your diet coke and mentos fly! it should look like a rocket cross with a fountain.
Posted by Emmie  on  Wed Jan 10, 2007  at  11:31 AM
It's easier if you just stick a small magnet to the Mento. Then you can use a larger magnet to keep it up in the cap until you're ready to let it spray.
Posted by Charybdis  on  Wed Jan 10, 2007  at  11:43 AM
this site is awesome!! im gonna try this one my bro l8r cya
Posted by no one cares  on  Thu Jan 11, 2007  at  08:34 AM
well im doing my proect on this and well it got me wondering if this gum arabic resolution was true soo i decided to experiment with things that didnt have gum arabic in them (such as salt sugar and even pennies) and in resolution salt fizzed even miore then mentos! well could u please anser me and tell me wat makes mentos explode in cola
Posted by poopoo  on  Mon Jan 15, 2007  at  02:55 PM
mine went 2682968562682 feet into the air it was sooo kool you have no idea you guys all suck because mine is a world record yeah!
Posted by Lindsay Vella  on  Mon Jan 29, 2007  at  07:42 AM
heyy i belive that the "arabic gum" is the thingy that makes it explode and i know this because i tried it and im trying to get the stain off my roof from where the pop had hit lol
Posted by Whitneyy  on  Mon Jan 29, 2007  at  02:15 PM
wow amazing....................................not
Posted by ryker  on  Mon Jan 29, 2007  at  03:15 PM
i tried this and it works
Posted by vcbcvbcxb  on  Mon Feb 05, 2007  at  01:30 PM
Just put diet Coke into a glass with one Mentos...lots of fizzing, no explosion. Much like plop plop fizz fizz, for those of you who remember Alka-Seltzer commercials, or the fizzy Vitamin C pills doctors here give you if you have a cold. No explosion, not even a mess in my kitchen sink. I think that answers the shape of the bottle question. I can't believe it's dangerous enough to kill anyone.
Posted by Abu Dhabi  on  Thu Feb 08, 2007  at  08:48 PM
with all of you people saying that this expirement is fake and it's not what people claim... then what is it?? I'm doing it for a science expirement and it seems all the websites I've been to have people saying it's wonrg. I need to know.
And for all of you people who try eating Mentos and drinking soda it didn't do anything for a reason... You'd have to eat all the mentos at the same time... If not than nothing will happen.
Posted by Lacey  on  Fri Feb 09, 2007  at  07:08 PM
For all of the people who wonder why Diet Pepsi works better: It does'nt necessarily "work" better. I heard it's just easier to clean up at the end because it's less sticky.
And to all the people who keep saying nothing happened with 1 mentos: Well DUHH!!!! You need more than one montos. i heard 13 mentos and a 2-Liter bottle work the best
Posted by Lacey  on  Fri Feb 09, 2007  at  07:16 PM
We have tried it as a school science experiment and it was amazing to see the affect it had .You should try it , just remember not to drink it. Hehe....

Sam and Tam
South Africa
Penryn Collage
Posted by Sammy Hammond and Tamsin Ballantyne  on  Sat Feb 17, 2007  at  02:11 AM
yeah i remember doing it in my physical science class... Astonishingly, i was the only person in the class (besides the teacher, of course) who had previously done the experiment!!
Posted by Vic  on  Mon Feb 19, 2007  at  10:12 PM
well, this is a great reaction, but i don't believe that it has anything to do with the arabic gum, though i could be wrong. i've just always heard that it's because of the carbon dioxide. but i could be wrong, i mean sheesh im no scientist =]
Posted by shelby <3  on  Sat Feb 24, 2007  at  06:14 PM
well shelby there has to be something in the montos to create the explosion. u cant just open a bottle of soda and have it explode... it has something to do with the mentos. wether its gum arabic or not im not sure. but i assure u it's not just the carbon dioxide gas... that makes no sense.
Posted by Lacey  on  Sat Feb 24, 2007  at  06:54 PM
nice stuff, but it the nucleation sites nothin else
Posted by MEMO  on  Mon Feb 26, 2007  at  06:44 PM
how do u know?!?!?!?! u dont know everything!!!
and could you tell me how you came up with that solution? and how other people came up with the wrong ones?! For my science fair project
Posted by Lacey  on  Mon Feb 26, 2007  at  08:27 PM
:) I am doing a science experiement on it!
Posted by rachel  on  Wed Feb 28, 2007  at  08:37 AM
Umm the correct thing is cocunate oil.
Posted by abdulla  on  Thu Mar 01, 2007  at  04:34 PM
Hey... I am planning to do this for a science fair project... Can you please help me out and provide some information (more) on why mentos cause soda to explode?.... and if there are certain types that do it... PLEASE!!! thanks.... i appreciate it a lot...
Posted by Cassy Hutchings  on  Mon Mar 05, 2007  at  10:21 PM
well cassy. the first answer i found was from the gum arabic and the carbon dioxide gas. im doing it for a science fair project as well. but as i came upon this site other people were saying its different things. i feel i should go with what scientists say not other people on the internet so im going with gum arabic and carbon dioxide gas. i found a really good website that has info for it. i forget the name right now but its pretty hard to follow so i gt my smart friend to translate. ill be more than willing to help u with it too. just ask on this site
Posted by Lacey  on  Mon Mar 05, 2007  at  11:06 PM
dunno if its been posted or not cause i didnt feel like reading all the posts, but tapping a can "defizzes" it because of a thing called efervesance, look it up
Posted by chad  on  Wed Mar 07, 2007  at  05:40 PM
haha, i put mentos in my mouth and drank soda, it fizzled, but nothing really major happened. It sounded really cool though!
Posted by Abbi  on  Wed Mar 14, 2007  at  06:08 PM
void(0);
LOLOMGOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i like, love this experiment!!!!!!!! its the best !! its awesome!!!! its coooooooooooooooooooo kool!!!!! i just have 2 do it. lolvoid(0);
red face
Posted by 5hdh  on  Fri Mar 16, 2007  at  09:40 AM
I think that the carbon dioxide gasses cling to the little pits that are all over the mentos macking it bubble
Posted by valeri  on  Fri Apr 13, 2007  at  08:14 AM
rasberry tongue laugh Nice!
Posted by Zubin  on  Tue Apr 17, 2007  at  02:59 PM
MY CLASS IS DOING A SCIENCE
PROJECT ON THE MENTOS AND THE DIET COKE
AND I KNOW U HAD SOME EXPERIENCE WITH THAT
AND I WAS WONDERING IF U CAN GIVE ME A REALLY
KOOL WEDSIGHT ABOUT THOES OR JUST TELL ME WAT
HAPPEND AND HOW DID U DO IT!
Posted by ASHLEY  on  Fri Apr 27, 2007  at  04:26 PM
it was fun
ghjzfgtjfthjfgjhfj
Posted by yo mammaxgfj  on  Wed May 16, 2007  at  01:19 PM
ok so i have to do an end of the year project for my advanced chemistry class, i wanted to do pop rocks and soda becuz i heard it would produce the same reaction as mentos and soda... anyone know if this is tru or not? if so could you please respond asap... oh and also which sodas work the best would be helpful too :D
Posted by Court  on  Thu May 24, 2007  at  02:40 PM
Hey guys...I tried the experiment and i obviously didnt do any research to find it has to be a bottle. What i did is put the coke in a cup and dropped some mentos in and only a little fizz happened. now ive run out of mentos lol so i should have researched first..
Posted by karly  on  Sat Jun 16, 2007  at  10:58 PM
"diet" works, not BECAUSE of the aspartame, but because of the lack of sugar. disolved sugar in water is ionic and slows this type of reaction. several other factors do contribute to the reaction, some of which were named previously: nucleation sites, gum arabic and its water-tension breaking properties, both of which help the violent release of all of the CO2. Also, the acidity of the diet soda helps to immediately disolve the mentos, causing more nucleations sites and even more reaction. This experiment is like a physical version of a nuclear bomb, but instead of massive amounts of heat, light, gamma rays and subsequent radiation, the only products are all of the CO2 in the soda; flat, no-longer-carbonated diet coke and all of the energy exerted by the escaping gas. AS previously on this chain, DO NOT SCREW THE CAP BACK ON!!!! This is WAY TOO VIOLENT a reaction to assume that the thin plastic of a 2 liter or 20 oz. bottle could handle the pressure. THE BOTTLE WILL BLOW UP AND YOU MAY GET HURT OR HURT OTHERS.
Posted by timmyb  on  Sat Jun 30, 2007  at  02:23 PM
Hmm. Well, I dropped three mentos into a glass of pepsi. It didn't explode, but it sure did fizz a lot. I'm drinking Pepsi/swallowing mentos right now to see if I get bloated. Hmmm I do feel a little pressure at the back of my throat... I'll have to do this again (not in my body but in bottles) with different kinds of soda. I'll let you know if I ever get around to doing it
Posted by mmmfondue  on  Wed Jul 18, 2007  at  11:18 PM
did you no you can die from this if you put it in your mouth da DUH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by linda  on  Thu Sep 27, 2007  at  08:05 AM
i like bannanas over mentos any day 😛 but im doing this experiment for school so i was searching up information on this experiment.
Posted by Will  on  Thu Sep 27, 2007  at  08:33 AM
wow it is so amazing i did it at my school with my teachers and it went so high......... yea it was alot of funn it got on my teacher lol =D
Posted by Kamaly  on  Thu Sep 27, 2007  at  01:20 PM
First, there definately is some chemical in Mentos that participates in the eruption. To prove that's it's not all about the nucleation sites, take a Mentos and dissolve it in water. This way there won't be any physical structures, just the chemicals. Then pour this "Mentos water" into a soda. Tada! It still foams up like crazy.

Likewise, other substances that reduce the surface tension of water also cause the soda to release it's pent-up carbon dioxide. For example, dissolve a little dishsoap into some water, then toss that into a soda bottle. You'll get a really good fizz-over.

Certainly nucleation sites contribute to fizzing, but that's only part of the story.
Posted by Jason Ledtke  on  Sun Sep 30, 2007  at  01:49 PM
umm ya i saw the mythbusters episode also on this and what that guy said is true about it it was a really kool episode also i get to do this as a presentation at my church and so ya
Posted by Person  on  Sun Oct 07, 2007  at  04:58 PM
If you try it with mint mentos and diet coke it willl probably work when you eat em.
Posted by ??????/  on  Sun Oct 28, 2007  at  08:17 PM
:) :lol: okay you guyws no wat you are all saying different things wat is really true does it explode in your stomache or wat because noone can get this straight
Posted by haley  on  Fri Nov 02, 2007  at  01:07 PM
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