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

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
me and alexa might be doing this for science fair07-08 and we will need mentos and diet sodas and just what and see waht happens!!!!-what do you think the effects is going to be when you mix up mentos and diet soda?!
Posted by DeShaya Diggins  on  Wed Nov 07, 2007  at  02:17 PM
:-) i did this in science it was masive :zip:
Posted by howard  on  Mon Dec 03, 2007  at  07:11 PM
no thing happens when you drink soda and then eat mentos.. all you feel is a little bit of gas and thats all. then you have to burp but thats about it
Posted by natasha  on  Mon Dec 10, 2007  at  08:01 PM
whats in mentos ?????
Posted by CORTESY  on  Wed Dec 12, 2007  at  10:59 AM
i bvet you that if you drink some diet coke and then eat mentos but not chew them then swallow them your stomach would probably explode. but if you chew them then your stomach wont explode.
Hehe thats just a thought though
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH
Posted by Haley  on  Fri Dec 14, 2007  at  12:07 PM
umm... it does work with regular coke, mountain dew, etc. It just works best with diet coke. And only some kinds of mentos work. Certain flavors of mentos have a waxy coating that covers up the "nucleation sites". Hope this helps 😊
Posted by Umbreon27  on  Fri Dec 21, 2007  at  02:44 PM
hi it was sweet!!!!!!!!
Posted by sweet  on  Wed Jan 16, 2008  at  09:42 AM
:lol: i always thot that was a myth till my science teacher did this.
Posted by Chandlermaki  on  Wed Jan 16, 2008  at  09:43 AM
woah hey.
Posted by Brittany  on  Tue Feb 05, 2008  at  02:00 PM
whatssup home slices
Posted by Jessica  on  Tue Feb 05, 2008  at  02:01 PM
My daughter did the mentos/cola reaction for her science fair...it was interesting. It seems that caffeine free cola has the largest reaction that we got. We used Cola, diet, caffeine free, and just to see we used Dr.pepper too. We also used another mint to see what would happen and well mentos did win the other mint did have a reaction in the caffeine free, all the other colas did not foam over. Interesting find I think.
Posted by Mrs. Panther  on  Thu Feb 14, 2008  at  09:10 AM
ha ha you guys say "pop"
i just call it soda.. thats cute!! =)
Posted by becca  on  Tue Feb 26, 2008  at  02:35 AM
It is mostly caused by nucluation...i spelled it wrong...thats when Co2 gets caught in the microscopic dents in the mento which creates bubbles. there are other things too such as the gum arabic. It can also be done with seltzer water....with less of an affect.
Posted by efACqf  on  Sat Mar 01, 2008  at  05:40 PM
omg u guys are all gay
Posted by x  on  Tue Mar 04, 2008  at  02:19 PM
this xperiment is pointless
Posted by Barrok Obama  on  Tue Mar 04, 2008  at  02:25 PM
this was an old science project of mine but i guess i didnt do it right because it didnt explode like in the picture so i dont beleive that it went that high.
Posted by annonomus  on  Fri Mar 28, 2008  at  08:45 PM
I am going to do an experament, putting mentose with diet coke, regular coke, and carbanated water, on my calculations, the diet coke should react the most, but do you think that the other sodas might react better if at a cooler temperature? if you have any hypothasis, just e-mail me... .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

just so you know, i'm not an adult...i'm 15, so yeah...nothing to smart
Posted by Angie Bannister  on  Fri Apr 18, 2008  at  10:12 AM
wow that really cool im doing a project for this this could help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by miranda tirpak  on  Thu May 01, 2008  at  12:46 PM
lol, thats great, did you find out some information??
Posted by Angela Bannister  on  Sun May 04, 2008  at  01:56 PM
if i drink pepsi & then swallow mentos will i blow up ?
Posted by isabel  on  Sat Aug 23, 2008  at  10:52 AM
eye ated the mentoes and da diet cokez and feelz fine. i swallowed it all downz and nothing happenz lolz wait i feelz funny.
Posted by mentoes  on  Tue Sep 09, 2008  at  03:32 PM
I did it and not im in the hospital. do the math people
Posted by lillyarntson  on  Tue Sep 09, 2008  at  07:41 PM
Im testing this experiment on several different pops for a school science project.
Posted by Antonio  on  Thu Oct 23, 2008  at  07:26 AM
LOL PLEASE let meh know if any1 trys putting in diet coke + mentos in mouth i wanna know da' facts.
Posted by Alex  on  Sun Oct 26, 2008  at  12:58 PM
i am doing a experiment on different kinds of soda and mentoes put together. Do you have any kind of refferences for it. it is for school.
Posted by charles dick  on  Mon Nov 10, 2008  at  04:57 PM
wat up wat up ok listen to this i am doing a project on this and need to know every little step it takes to win the science fair so yea.
Posted by Autumn Pocan  on  Wed Nov 19, 2008  at  12:01 PM
I love the mentos and coke experiment. I did it with my 4 year old son this weekend. He learned about chemical reactions and what a volcano looks like when it erupts. Cool stuff! We found another fun site with neat science experiments like this. I will put the link below for anyone interested.

http://weirdsciencekids.com/FunExperiments.html
Posted by John  on  Sat Nov 29, 2008  at  12:25 AM
haha, im doing this experiment
witth my buddy ben in my class
for our annual school science fair.
i caqnt wait to try it out.
its goign to be some messy experimenting 😊
Posted by MaireadF  on  Mon Dec 01, 2008  at  05:36 PM
this is cool i get to do this experiment at my school for a science fair so excited 4 it it looks like fun!



*Rachel*
*M*
*J*
Posted by Rachel M J  on  Sat Dec 13, 2008  at  11:39 AM
HAPPY PERSON
Posted by bob  on  Tue Jan 06, 2009  at  06:16 AM
maybe it will work maybe it won't......
Posted by frankie miller  on  Mon Feb 23, 2009  at  07:06 PM
bonjour les ami camment ca vas!
Posted by sarah  on  Thu Mar 05, 2009  at  08:46 AM
holy crap i will never ever do that again well if you really must now i pewk on a kid lol... :sick:
Posted by joe  on  Thu Mar 05, 2009  at  08:49 AM
This experiment is what I'm doing for my science report :]
Pretty Awesome :D
Haha.
Posted by Shanniah  on  Thu Mar 12, 2009  at  01:55 PM
i did this with a little can of soda and my friend tried to drink it, ill just say, dont do it
Posted by XXX  on  Thu Apr 02, 2009  at  04:49 PM
i hate my skool is typing a real class someone tell me, my stupid teachers say you could fail 7th grade from it and that it is a real class, i hate it, and dress code.
Posted by XXX  on  Thu Apr 02, 2009  at  04:57 PM
I am doing this research for my science class. My teacher is really nit picky about everything and in my question i asked if mentos explode in every kind of soda, and she got mad at me because mentos dont explode, they cause a chemical reaction.
Posted by Maggie  on  Wed May 27, 2009  at  03:52 PM
What is a nucleation site and what are the best soda's to use also why and what are the ingredients in it.
Posted by paul jacob joey  on  Wed Sep 16, 2009  at  08:21 AM
hahahahaha
Posted by nowone  on  Mon Sep 28, 2009  at  11:29 AM
ok well we did it ast our school and rock salt makes it react a hole lot cause the fruit menots only went 25cm(pathetic) and the rock salt made it go 1.09m in the air it was awseome
Posted by Dana  on  Wed Oct 28, 2009  at  05:14 AM
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