Mentos + Soda = Explosion
Status: True
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!
Categories: Food Posted by Alex on Fri Sep 23, 2005 |
Comments (186) |
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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
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.
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
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Posted by Haley on Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 12:07 PM
Hehe thats just a thought though
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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
i just call it soda.. thats cute!! =)
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
just so you know, i'm not an adult...i'm 15, so yeah...nothing to smart
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
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