Mentos + Soda = Explosion

thatsstupid

The explanation for this reaction is exactly as explained, it is the arabic gum that decreases the surface tension and intermolecular reactions between the atoms contained in soda. This in turn releases the CO2 that was pressurized into the liquid. Diet pepsi works the best, the reason for this? compared to all other carbonated sodas, diet pepsi has the most carbonation. The fact that mentos have small imperfections is but an aside that might help very little, but not in any quantifiable way as any object... ANY object on the molecular level (the level CO2 operates on) has small imperfections.

It's not Mentos per se that cause this reaction (and definitely not gum arabic, which is located underneath the Mentos shell), though as indicated above, Mentos are covered with microscopic pits to provide nucleation sites which attract carbon dioxide.

You can get an almost identical reaction by pouring coarse salt (about a tablespoon) into the top of the bottle. The resulting gusher is about five to six feet high, whereas a Mentos reaction can be in excess of 12 feet. My educated guess is that the height difference results from the Mentos sinking quickly to the bottom of the bottle, causing the trapped carbon dioxide throughout the bottle to rush to the bottom, resulting in a tremendous pressure differential.

However you look at it, it's a fun, safe experiment that gets a great reaction every time.

I suppose if you wanted to know if it related to the menthanol, you could drop some menthanol vicks vapor rub into soda and see if that worked, or drop cinnamon mentos into the soda...I've no idea what's in mentos, so I can't even suspect what would cause it to react. Although, the arabic gum theory sounds plausable.

I heard a story on NPR saying it wasn't the aspartame or the gum arabic. They said it was the rough surface of the Mentos, which makes sense. With any soda, CO2 comes out of solution from Carbonic Acid (H2CO3). The dissolved CO2 makes the Carbonic Acid, but there is quite a bit of CO2. So much that CO2 comes out of solution immediately once you open the soda bottle. Warm soda and rough surfaces expedite this process. M&M's don't work very well because they are much smoother. This is NOT a hoax because eating Diet Coke and Mentos together is not the same as putting a TON of Mentos in a WHOLE BOTTLE of Diet Coke. Have you ever burped after eating the two? Makes sense doesn't it. Of course you're not going to explode, you can release the small amount of CO2 you've ingested with no problem.

We did a 2 liter Diet Pepsi last week here at work with 20 Mentos, and got about 8 or 9ft. We did a Diet Dr Pepper about 20 mins ago with only 13 Mentos (we're running out) and got about 12ft. Diet Dr. Pepper works *much* better than Diet Pepsi.

We're trying Mug Root Beer tomorrow (mainly because I want to drink the minty Root Beer remnants afterwards; mint root beer tastes great), but I doubt we'll get as high as the Dr. Pepper achieved.

We also are talking about a version of the experiment using actual beer.

You know, I don't think I saw one person even close to being right.

Anyone of you could've wiki'd it, or even just googled it, but none of you did.

In the future guys, either do some research before you speak, or pass grade 8.

make the pepsi really cold prefferably at 33 degrees farenhieght because carbon is stored tightly ay cold temp ,so colder means fizzyer

i drank a 2 liter bottle of diet coke and swallowed two mentos. Results: fizz came threw my throat and nose and i was in the hospital for 2 days and i have to take medication for three months. it was so worth it!

This is the real deal! Diet Coke and Mentos really does react. Have a look at CokeMentos.com to see more. We tried it ourselves and it worked, surprisingly enough.

;-P sick! this was cool!! :cheese: :gulp:

I still can

I did this with a 1.5 liter bottle of Diet Coke and some Watermelon Mentos. Absolutely nothing happened. Was it 1.5 liter vs. 2.0 liters, or Diet Coke vs. Diet Pepsi, or Watermelon Mentos vs. Mint Mentos that caused it to fail?

we put mentos in diet coke today at our science camp.It was awesome!!! I did it when i got home. But i got in trouble because i used my mama's diet coke. :lol:

wILL IT WORK WITH FLAT SODA?
NEED TO KNOW ASAP PLEASE oops sorry for the CAPS it was locked

BE CAREFUL WITH THIS EXPERIMENT!! I watched my friend drop a pack of Mentos into a bottle of Dr Pepper, quickly put the cap on and shake it. The bottle exploded in his hands and he had to be taken to the hospital. Tiny bits of plastic got in his eye and neck. If you do the experiment as shown on the video, then you should be ok but for goodness sakes don't try to cap the bottle once the mentos are in!

I have a feeling that it's either the Carbon dioxide in the softdrinks or the aspartame or whatever makes the diet beverage "diet". The one way to clear up the latter condition is to test it out on non diet softdrinks and see how the reaction goes. if it still happens then we know it has to do with the CO2 and how it reacts to whatever is in/comprises the mentos. If not then we know it's a particular chemical/family of chemicals in diet beverages that helps cause the reaction to take place.

The best explanation that I could find...
from EepyBird.com:

Several people theorized that a substance called gum arabic in the Mentos breaks the surface tension of the soda, allowing the carbon dioxide bubbles to escape rapidly. This explanation doesn

Many scientists claim that the Mentos phenomenon is a physical reaction, not a chemical one. Water molecules strongly attract each other, linking together to form a tight mesh around each bubble of carbon dioxide gas in the soda. In order to form a new bubble, or even to expand a bubble that has already formed, water molecules must push away from each other. It takes extra energy to break this "surface tension." In other words, water "resists" the expansion of bubbles in the soda.

When you drop the Mentos into the soda, the gelatin and gum arabic from the dissolving candy break the surface tension. This disrupts the water mesh, so that it takes less work to expand and form new bubbles. Each Mentos candy has thousands of tiny pits all over the surface. These tiny pits are called nucleation sites - perfect places for carbon dioxide bubbles to form. As soon as the Mentos hit the soda, bubbles form all over the surface of the candy. Couple this with the fact that the Mentos candies are heavy and sink to the bottom of the bottle and you've got a double-whammy. When all this gas is released, it literally pushes all of the liquid up and out of the bottle in an incredible soda blast. You can see a similar effect when cooking potatoes or pasta are lowered into a pot of boiling water. The water will sometimes boil over because organic materials that leach out of the cooking potatoes or pasta disrupt the tight mesh of water molecules at the surface of the water, making it easier for bubbles and foam to form.

So in essence it is both the suface and the gum arabic.

I gotta try this.

lol im doing this today in the park as a rocket and recording it for my website! nice

One mento in a bottle of diet pepsi doesn't do much. But 10 sets it off!!! Fun!! Make sure your pepsi is run temp.

i too would like to see a person(or kid 😉 )throw up diet coke and mentos....HEHE!It probably comes out through the nose too!!! 😝

OMG!!! :grrr: in his eye and neck
i gotta be careful
im gonna do it soon
yay!

Hi, I am doing a Science fair report on Diet Coke and Mentos. I was wondering is it just the mentos that causes it to explode? If so, why doesn't it work in normal coke, or mt. dew? What is it that makes "Diet" coke so special? Does IT also have a chemical that causes it to explode?
I know the Arabic gum checmical causes it to somewhat explode, but what is it that really gets it?
If you could let me know I would be very Thankful!
Thank You!
--Micah

who wants to be my friend??? 😕
:(

mentos are good!!!MMMMM

Im doing this experiment for my project/report.yes im still in school!!!Its more boooooring when you have to write like 4 pages about it!URGH!!! :coolgrin:

Cool, 'sept this is so a "DUUUUUHHHH", it's not only the arabic gum that does it ppl... The carbine dioxide builds up in there, due to the chemicals mixing, then it will build up pressure, finding only one way out.. The top. It will then shoot out, and then stop, after the pressure gets out.

ok soooo if this whole thing w/ mentos & soda is true ill find out..... b/c me and my friend are doing it 4 a science progect........ just 2 see wat happens

:lol: if you people are so smart then try to drink it after-words 🧛

😏 i did... i dont think anyone should.

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:

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).

this experiment sounds fun and i cant wait to test it for my science fair project FUN FUN FUN!!!

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.

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

god the reason it fizzes so much is it sinks to the bottom of the bottle

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

my dklasfj tried it and it died

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.

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.

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.

this site is awesome!! im gonna try this one my bro l8r cya

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

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!

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

wow amazing....................................not

i tried this and it works

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.