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Soda geyser

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A Diet Coke two-liter bottle shortly after Mentos were dropped into it.

A Diet Coke and Mentos eruption, also known as a Mentos eruption or a Coke geyser is a reaction of Diet Coke and mint Mentos candies. A two-liter bottle of Diet Coke, or of some other carbonated beverage, is used, although Diet Coke is preferred because it tends to react better. Dropping some Mentos into the bottle causes the Diet Coke to foam at a rapid rate and spew into the air. Mint-flavored Mentos are used, as fruit-flavored Mentos have a smooth coating which slows the reaction. Because of the spectacular nature of this physical reaction and the easy availability of the ingredients, the eruption is a popular subject for Internet videos.

A variation of this experiment consists of making the bottle rocket. The Mentos are inserted into the bottle, then immediately afterward, the cap is put on the bottle and the bottle slammed onto the ground cap-first. The explosion will generate a reaction like a rocket.

History

The Internet phenomenon appears to have begun with a story NPR's David Kestenbaum and Michele Norris did in April, 2006 on the Diet Coke and Mentos stunt.[1] The Internet popularity of the stunt then spiked significantly in June, 2006[2] when the website eepybird.com released a popular video in which Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz re-created the fountain display seen in front of the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas using a timed series of eruptions. Later Eepybird videos featured "self-activating" soda jets linked together to form a Domino Rally-style effect. In September 2007, the videos, including the "Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments" video that was viewed more than 10 million times, earned the pair the highest yearly payout of US$50,000 from the video hosting service Revver.[3]

The eruption has been reproduced many times by popular sources, including the television shows Numb3rs, Bones, and Ellen DeGeneres and an appearance by MythBusters cast member Kari Byron in FHM magazine, an experiment conducted by Bart Simpson on The Simpsons episode, "The Debarted", an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman by physics teacher Lee Marek, and others. The MythBusters experiment later set the record for highest soda jet recorded, at over 29 feet (9 meters), using a nozzle.

Setting world records for the most simultaneous Mentos-and-Diet-Coke Eruptions has become a new challenge for many groups of people. The original world record - 504 simultaneous eruptions - was set on May 24, 2007, and was broken on July 10, 2007, by Circle R Ranch and Books Are Fun during a special event in Flower Mound, Texas. Guinness World Records certified the record-setting effort when independent sales representatives from Books Are Fun, a Reader's Digest Company, simultaneously dropped Mentos into individual two-litre bottles of Diet Pepsi, creating 791 geysers and reaching over 32 feet with the use of a nozzle.

The next record was set on April 23, 2008, by students of Ekonomika, the fraternity for students studying Economics, in the Belgian city of Leuven; they simultaneously launched 1,360 Mentos geysers.[4] Then, on May 14, 2008, students at Louisville Male High School in Louisville, Kentucky, broke that record by setting off 1,800 simultaneous geysers.[5]

The current Guinness World Record—1,911 simultaneous geysers[6]—was set on June 19, 2008, by students of the School of Business Administration Turiba in Latvia. This record was registered by the official representative of the Guinness World Record book.[7]

Explanation

In a 2006 episode of MythBusters, a popular television program on the Discovery Channel,[8] the MythBusters concluded that the caffeine, potassium benzoate, aspartame, and CO2 gas contained in the Diet Coke and the gelatin and gum arabic ingredients of the Mentos all contribute to the jet effect.[9] In addition, the MythBusters theorized that the physical structure of the Mentos is the most significant cause of the eruption due to nucleation. When flavored Mentos with a smooth waxy coating were tested in carbonated drink there was hardly a reaction, whereas standard Mentos added to carbonated drink formed an energetic eruption, by their claim, affirming the nucleation-site theory. According to the MythBusters, the surface of the mint Mentos is littered with many small holes, allowing CO2 bubbles to form very rapidly and in great quantity, in turn causing the jet of foam. This was further supported when rock salt was used as an effective substitute for Mentos.[9]

A paper by Tonya Coffey, a physicist at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina goes into detail on the reasons and physics behind the reaction.[10][11]

Steve Spangler, who first put the Mentos Geyser in the public eye, has several videos and detailed experiments about it on his website.[12] The Geyser Tube is a device invented for use in creating the reaction.[13]

Popularity

One reason for the popularity of the eruption is its comparative safety. Because the interaction releases only the small amount of carbon dioxide present in the liquid, the cola bottle should not usually rupture if capped—although it is possible to break the bottle with physical force.[14][15] This differs from similar demonstrations with a dry ice bomb which has the potential to generate much larger pressures depending on the amount used. The MythBusters also noted when testing the experiment that, unlike other materials such as dry ice which are relatively expensive and rare, Diet Coke and Mentos can be acquired at almost any local shop in countries where Mentos are sold. Many high school or middle school science labs experiments are based on this phenomenon, as it can promote a better understanding of chemical or physical reactions.

References

  1. ^ "NPR, All Things Considered, April 13, 2006".
  2. ^ "Google timeline histogram of search topic "Diet Coke and Mentos"".
  3. ^ Graham, Jefferson (2007-09-12). "Posters reap cash rewards at video-sharing site Revver". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-09-13. The biggest paycheck — $50,000 for 15 clips — went to two guys from Maine who inserted a Mentos mint into a bottle of Diet Coke and watched it explode.
  4. ^ "Daily Mail news article". Dailymail.co.uk. 2008-04-25. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  5. ^ "Video". Wlky.com. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  6. ^ Loftus, Jack (2008-06-21). "Turiba University Sets World Record with 1911 Simultaneous Coke+Mentos Esplosions on". Gizmodo.com. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  7. ^ 19 juni 2008 (2008-06-19). "VIDEO - 1,911 simultaneous cola and Mentos fountains were made to set new Guiness World Record on June 19th, 2008 in Riga, Latvia". Youtube.com. Retrieved 2009-09-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ "MythBusters: Diet Coke and Mentos". TV.com. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  9. ^ a b O'Hare, Kate. "The 'MythBusters' Take on the Mentos/Diet Coke Craze". Retrieved 2007-01-21.
  10. ^ "Science of Mentos-Diet Coke explosions explained". Newscientist.com. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  11. ^ "Diet Coke and Mentos: What is really behind this physical reaction?". Dx.doi.org. 2009-08-08. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  12. ^ Steve Spangler's personal website at http://www.stevespangler.com
  13. ^ "Mentos Geyser | Steve Spangler's Blog". Geysertube.com. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
  14. ^ "YouTube demonstration video".
  15. ^ "YouTube video: Mentos rockets".

Further reading

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