The rms roughness of a 100m2 image acquired in the AFM. Note that the contact angles for Diet Coke and Caffeine Free Diet Coke are not very different. Mentos candies contain millions of cavities, roughly 1-3 m in size,[25][10] that remain unwetted when added to a soda. students used this simple device to monitor the kinetics of foam production in the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment and to draw conclusions about the system. 8:30 am 5:00 pm (MST), Steve Spangler Science Drop one Mentos candy into the first bottle and record the height by counting the wet bricks or by using your own scale. My cohost for the KUSA-TV science segment was the lovely Kim Christiansen. Hall, Magdalena Jaramillo, Cully Little, and Zach Russell, and my graduate research assistant, Jon Jones. Depending upon the number of Mentos dropped into the bottle, the spray height can vary between a few inches and tens of feet. With everything you need to set up your own science lab anywhere, the Amazing Scientist Chemistry Kit is a fantastic introduction to the world of science. (As discussed, part of the reason that the Wint-o-Green reaction took more time is due to the increased fall times.) The Mentos And Coke Volcano Experiment. The Wint-o-Green Lifesavers are rougher than the Mentos by a factor of 5, but the mass lost during these reactions is comparable. Unfortunately, Kim got so caught up in the fun that she forgot to do both and got soaked in Diet Coke on live television! After this, two interested scientists from the entertainment company EepyBird, Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz decided to post a Youtube video demonstrating this experiment and it went viral, gaining 120 million views. The lack of change in the pH supports the conclusion that the Mint MentosDiet Coke reaction is not an acid-base reaction. This hands-on experiment is easy to do and simply involves dropping Mentos into a bottle of diet soda and running away. This was the original inspiration behind the Geyser Tube. Webfeaturing the famous Diet Coke and Mentos experiment and knew its basic Further research yielded the following background information. Write down what happened when you dropped the Mentos in the coke. Make sure your scale is in place, whether youre measuring by counting bricks or using an alternative method. The pits on the candy coating act as conduits for carbon dioxide bubbles that form immediately when the candy hits the soda, increasing its fizziness. When the candy hits the bottom of the bottle, the gas is released and pushes the soda from the bottle up in the air in an amazing eruption! What do your results reveal about the effect that the number of Mentos has on the height of the geyser? Aspiring Botanists, and even young gardeners, will get excited about science with this hands-on kit. As the mentos candy sinks in the bottle, the candy causes the production of more and more carbon dioxide bubbles, and the rising bubbles react with carbon dioxide. Hence it is the combination of a rough surface and the surfactant in the outer coating of the candy that causes the impressive reactions. A soda geyser is a reaction between a carbonated beverage, usually Diet Coke, and Mentos mints that causes the beverage to be expelled from its container. Diet Coke and Coke Zero react better with Mentos than regular Coke does because of the absence of sugar. Let us know what you observed in your science experiment! For the reaction between Diet Coke and the molecular sieve beads, the lower limit on the duration of this reaction was 12s, a much longer time than all of the other reactions. What is it with this experiment with soda and Mentos that causes this explosion to shoot so far into the air? The Diet We used a FEI Quanta 200 electron scanning microscope. Buddies, S. (2012, June 14). WebConclusion Conclusion: The Diet Coke reacted to the Mentos, which means the hypothesis was correct. What are the independent and dependent variables in Coke and Mentos? The independent variable to this experiment is the Mento because it could stand alone and it does not depend on. Many soda geyser-ologists believe that seven Mentos candies produce the highest shooting geyser. This is because the warm air would have a greater volume and would exert more pressure, which would force the soda to a higher height. To the naked eye, Fruit Mentos are shinier than Mint Mentos, and therefore should be smoother. This is why bottling plants pump carbon dioxide into the cans or bottles when the fluid is just above freezing, usually around 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Because of this, the addition of Mentos candies to a carbonated beverage provides enormous numbers of pre-existing bubbles into which dissolved carbon dioxide can escape. SEM images of Mint Mentos [(a) and (c)] and Fruit Mentos with a candy coating [(b) and (d)]. Its time to return to your launching site. Note that the contact angle for the aspartame and potassium benzoate solutions is less than the contact angle for pure water, indicating a decrease in the surface tension. The kit comes with the essential materials youll need to conduct 6 experiments, take-it-further activities and challenges for 1 4 children per kit. Decide who will do what, so you will be ready when its your turn. My son chose this experiment for his 6th grade science fair project. Use this worksheet to help you record your observations after doing this experiment. Fortunately, the maker of Mentos (Perfetti Van Melle) also liked our Geyser Tube design. Coke possesses been which preferred mark through all other coke, spite one preference for Pepsi in blind taste tests. The mass 41020g was lost from the aspartameseltzer water mixture and 36020g of mass was lost from the potassium benzoateseltzer water mixture. The enthusiasm for dropping mints into soda bottles continues to grow today. Which is the best 150 Ah inverter battery? He would like to know why does the shape and size of the mentos affect the outcome of the project. The bubbles then act as growth sites, where the carbon dioxide still dissolved in the solution moves into the rising bubbles, causing even more liberation of carbon dioxide from the bottle. [1], Lee Marek and "Marek's Kid Scientists" performed the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1999. Within seconds of dropping the candies into the soda, a huge geyser would erupt from the bottle. Also, for the same amount of mass lost, the eruption will be more dramatic when the reaction takes place over a shorter time. In this case, were changing the number of Mentos dropped into each bottle, so everything else has to stay the same. Their surfactant properties then lower the surface tension of the Coke, which breaks apart the water molecules and, in doing so, allows carbon dioxide bubbles to form more readily. It doesnt matter what your variable is, it just has to be one concrete thing that you can change. We also showed that samples which encounter less viscous drag and hence fall more quickly through the soda will cause a more explosive reaction. What exactly happens when you mix Mentos and Coke? For each of the samples a (10m)2 image was acquired, and the root-mean-square (rms) roughness in the image was reported. While science teachers have been dropping candies and mints into 2-liter bottles of soda for years in an effort to release all of the dissolved carbon dioxide, the Mentos and Diet Coke reaction became world-famous in 2005. Remember that 1 liter is equivalent to 1000 milliliters. This bread mold experiment will help your child learn about mold, and he'll develop important hypothesis-making and experiment-designing skills. The choice of diet over regular soda is just a preference. The biggest challenge in the Mentos Geyser Experiment is finding a consistent way to drop the Mentos into the soda every time. Eruption caused by mixing Diet Coke and Mentos, "Naperville students integral to classic TV bits, but will the fun continue? Put the index card on top of the tube loader and turn the tube upside down. The goal of this project is to explore the eruption of carbon dioxide when the candy Mentos dissolves in Diet Coke. So what really causes this phenomenon? So, if you want some quick and easy fun, get some paper towels becausewere about to make a sweet mess. This experiment investigates if small changes in your diet can alter your basal body temperature. The bottom line was that we needed to find a way to standardize the drop of those Mentos mints. . Its important to use the same number of Mentos for each test and to drop them into the soda bottles the exact same way. The uncertainty is approximately 10%. The Hypothesis. Adding salt to soda also causes it to foam because thousands of little bubbles form on the surface of each grain of salt. What did you observe when you put Mentos candy into the soda bottle? Given the ingredients listed on Diet Coke, there is more aspartame than potassium benzoate in Diet Coke per unit volume. What soda has the biggest reaction to Mentos? KUSA-TV News posted that original video on their website along with my blog post titled, News Anchor Gets Soaked! Within a few weeks, links to the video and my blog entry numbered in the thousands. [10] As another example, dropping grains of salt or sand into the solution provides Type IV nucleation sites, lowers the activation energy compared to that of homogeneous nucleation, and increases the rate of carbon dioxide degassing. We constructed a bottle stand (roughly 10 off vertical) to prevent the bottles from tipping over and the liquid from falling back into the bottle. Contact mode AFM image of Mint Mentos. [25] These results suggest that additives serve to enhance geyser heights not by decreasing surface tension, but rather by decreasing bubble coalescence. The amount 54020g of mass was lost from the diet tonic water, 43020g of mass was lost from the tonic water, and 945g of mass from the seltzer water. WebThe Diet Coke and Mentos geyser experiment became an internet sensation in September 2005. There really arent that many supplies you need to make a mentos and coke volcano. The activation energy for the release of carbon dioxide from Diet Coke by the addition of Mentos is 25 kJ mol1. Average horizontal distance traveled by the spray during the reaction. At the time, my solution was to load the Mentos candies into something called a Baby Soda Bottle a test tube-like container that held an entire roll of Mentos perfectly. Superabsorbent giant growing polymer beads that absorb 150 times their weight in water! The beloved coke and mentos experiment is a perfect opportunity for young children interested in science to learn about the basics of acid and base reactions. The Mythbusters also correctly identified the roughness of the samples as one of the main causes of the reaction. A variety of containers with varying sized opening, A narrow test tube wide enough to fit the candy [Klutz and others make a delivery contraption that is easier.]. Gruber, B. You can also use a Baby Soda Bottle to hold the Mentos or a Geyser Tube, which was invented to solve this very problem. However, a change in surface roughness might also occur and affect the results when the Mentos is crushed. The first Coke and Mentos Experiment was conducted on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1999 by The Mareks Kid Scientists. But when the gum arabic was injected into the middle of the bottle, no mass was lost. The results for the trials with varying temperature are given in Table III. The secret is to turn your attention away from the spraying soda and concentrate on setting up an experiment where a single variable is isolated. A large fountain of coke then comes rushing out, oftentimes multiple metres in the air, causing a sticky mess all over the place. You might want to have someone film the reaction for you so you can watch it again. The next few months were spent building trigger devices that ranged from plastic tubes with sliding doors and magnets that held metal stoppers in place to an elaborate battery-operated switch that was triggered by a motion detector. Mixing Coke and Mentos looks like a chemical change, but since the gas released is carbon dioxide AND it was present before the foaming happened, it is actually a physical change. Quantitative Observation Introduce the concepts of chemical bonding, cross-linking of molecules. Hypothesis: If the amount of soda in the bottle decreases, then the height of the plume and velocity of the liquid will also decrease because there will less liquid with which the Mentos can react. The potassium benzoate and the aspartame are active ingredients in the Mint MentosDiet Coke reaction, but the aspartame likely contributes more to the reaction. To compare two systems, we calculate a ratio of the works required for bubble formation: We used this technique to compare the work required for formation of a bubble in deionized water to other liquids, as summarized in Table IV. Do they make motorcycle helmets for kids? The child who died from combining Mentos and Coca-Cola story is an updating of an older legend that began in 1979. View the Mentos Geyser Experiment here! Temperature of a 2l bottle of Diet Coke and mass lost during the reaction when 30g of Mint Mentos is added to the Diet Coke. The pH of the Diet Coke after the baking soda reaction was 6.1, indicating that much of the acid present in the Diet Coke was neutralized by the reaction. The diet coke erupted like a volcano. Pepper has the strongest reaction. Cover the opening of the test tube with an index card or similar slim, small paper. It is difficult to find beverages containing aspartame that do not contain a preservative such as potassium benzoate. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Dropping something into the Diet Coke speeds up this process by both breaking the surface tension of the liquid and also allowing bubbles to form on the surface area of the Mentos. A one gallon bucket containing test tubes of over 10 Spangler Labs originals, Features favorites like Insta-Snow, Energy Beads, Jelly Marbles, & Magic Sand. Rough candy Measurements showed that the surface tension in water containing the sweetener aspartame is lower than in sugary water, explaining why Diet Coke creates more dramatic fountains than sugary Coke. WebFun Science Experiments // Mentos and Coke / Soda ExperimentIncludes BOTH US size and Australian A4 sized files/spelling!This fun experiment explores the physical reaction between mentos and diet coke / diet soda creating an impressive geyser of carbon dioxide. half a roll) in the test tube. As the mentos candy sinks in the bottle, the candy Regular soda becomes a sticky mess because it contains sugar, while diet soda uses artificial sweeteners instead of sugar, so its not as sticky. Warm soda tends to fizz much more than cold soda because of the solubility of gases in liquids. Conclusion: The more mentos you put in a bottle of pop does not necessarily mean a larger explosion. WebCONCLUSIONS: ( Do you accept or reject your hypothesis, and why or why not) You and your partner will share your experiment with the class. What happens when you mix Diet Coke and Mentos? The Diet Coke and Mentos reaction is a popular experiment or demonstration in part because it inspires students to wonder, and inquiry-driven labs and active-learning demonstrations on this reaction have been implemented.3 I recently led a large group of undergraduate physics students in a cooperative research project to answer some of the debate on this reaction. What is the independent variable in Coke and Mentos experiment? Repeat the process, varying the opening that the soda erupts from. [2][10][23][24] When dissolved gas diffuses into bubbles that already exist in a liquid, it is called Type IV bubble nucleation. Compare these times to the mass lost and distance traveled results in Tables I and II. And you may not have a friend for a day or two until they forgive you. Turns out that diet coke, which gets its sweetness from artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, is more commonly used than its regular counterpart. We knew the Mentos Geyser Experiment was a popular experiment when a producer from ABCs Who Wants to Be a Millionaire called for help when writing a question. Keep everything else the same, even the brand of soda. You can also place the bottle of unopened soda in a bucket of warm water. Today Room 1 and 5 did a science experiment together. We found that the max amount of mentos with the largest explosion was 4 mentos, it went 350 cm high. The places where the bubbles form are the nucleation sites. Carbon dioxide is the chemical compound that consists of two oxygen atoms bonded to a Now, its time to run away. The candies catalyze the release of gas from the beverage, which creates an eruption that pushes most of the liquid up and out of the bottle. Is there another way for the carbon dioxide to escape? Learn more about how plants work with this cool celery experiment! The dependent variable is the the Diet Coke with the mentos because it depends on the mentos to have a chemical response. The Mentos mints then dropped into the soda. Retrieved January 31, 2021, from https://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/blogs/diet-coke-takes-longer-for-flight-attendants-to-serve-on-airplanes-bubbles#:~:text=Sugar%20both%20increases%20viscosity%20and,bubbles%20that%20pop%20much%20slower.%22&text=In%20the%20end%2C%20the%20total,out%20by%20a%20few%20seconds. [3][11][12] In March 2002, Steve Spangler, a science educator, did the demonstration on KUSA-TV, an NBC affiliate, in Denver, Colorado. Conclusion: The more mentos you put in a bottle of pop does not necessarily mean a larger explosion. View the Mentos Geyser Experiment here! These tiny pits act as nucleation sites, which are perfect for carbon dioxide bubbles. To make any of these tests meaningful, youll need to find a way to measure the height of the eruption. Each mint has thousands of tiny pits all over its surface. Record your observations in a logbook. We used the measured contact angle to calculate the minimum work required to form a critical bubble5 by the relation: where LV is the liquid-vapor surface tension, PP is the pressure difference across the interface, is the contact angle, and the function f() is given by. Science teachers started experimenting (as they like to do) with other candies and mints that would have the same effect when dropped into a bottle of soda. Why Do Diet And Coke Zero Have A Better Reaction With Mentos? Lets start with seven Mentos for our first attempt. This study began as a project for physics majors enrolled in a sophomore level physics lab course. Is the coke and Mentos reaction really a chemical reaction? The most striking example is the molecular sieve beads, which lost a significant amount of mass but only traveled 2.5ft. How does generic soda stack up against the name brands? Thus, adding Mentos candies to a carbonated beverage introduces millions of nucleation sites into the drink, which allows for degassing that is rapid enough to support a jet of foam out of a bottle. Dog Diets: Will a Dog Prefer Homemade Dog Food? The mint Mentos mixed with diet coke usually explodes the longer and higher while fruit Mentos has a more delayed and less impressive reaction. As luck would have it, the solution to the problem was within arms reach of the Wintergreen LifeSavers in the candy aisle: Mentos chewy mint candies! Conclusion Hypothesis: In the experiment I expect the Pepsi and Mentos reaction to be at least 30cm in height, however, I expect it to be short lived due to the fact that the sodium level of the beverage is only 10 mg. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-coke-mentos/. Science project. The goal is to drop all seven Mentos into the bottle of soda at the same time, which is trickier than you might think. Only one trial was performed for each temperature. In the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment, Arnold was trying to prove that the Diet Coke would explode if he put The bubbles of gas get larger and as they are lighter than the cola liquid, they quickly shoot to the top of the bottle. They also hypothesized that the rough surface of the Mentos can help break the strong polar attraction that water molecules have for each other by providing growth sites for the carbon dioxide, agreeing with scientists such as Lee Marek and Steve Spangler.2 Although they identified the prime ingredients, they did not sufficiently explain why those ingredients affect the explosion, nor did they provide direct proof of the roughness of the Mentosa tall order for an hour-long television program. The classic baking soda and vinegar acid-base reaction produces unstable carbonic acid that rapidly decomposes into water and carbon dioxide, which escapes as a gas. [10] When the pressure is released from a soda bottle upon opening it, dissolved carbon dioxide can escape into any tiny bubble located within the beverage. Spurting Science: Erupting Diet Coke with Mentos. Each bottle will receive a different number of Mentos. (4) next and Le Chateliers principle.6. Well, its probably not pretty. The average distance traveled by the sodas spray during the explosion is given in Table II. We have shown here via contact angle measurements that these ingredients reduce the work required for bubble formation, allowing carbon dioxide to rapidly escape from the soda. The trigger pin at the bottom of the tube prevented the Mentos from falling into the bottle until you pulled the string attached to the pin. For the Mint Mentos and baking soda trials, the pH of the Diet Coke before and after the reaction was measured by a pH meter with a two point calibration. For that reason, I solicited help from our creative team at Steve Spangler Science to come up with a Geyser Tube a better, more consistent way to drop the Mentos candies into the 2-liter bottle. This chemistry science kit includes activities for solo and group experiments, making it a fantastic addition to your classroom or for fun at home. The quantitative roughness information detailed in Table V was taken from this image. Line up a row of 10 soda bottles against a brick wall. The results showed that Diet Coke created the most spectacular explosions with either fruit or mint Mentos, the fountains travelling a horizontal distance of up to 7 metres. For example, it has been suggested that the higher viscosity of regular sodas as compared to diet sodas could inhibit the formation of the fountain in regular sodas, leading to shorter fountains. Place one bottle in the refrigerator and let it sit there overnight. Why do Mentos turn ordinary bottles of diet soda into geysers of fun? Of course, this could go on forever, but youll start to see a trend in your data that shows the maximum height of the geyser. Once the geyser stops, measure how much liquid is left inside. It comes with six fun experiments, a test tube rack, fizzing tablet and vegetable oil chemicals to play around with. The question in the hypothesis was answered too, with the This bubbling process is called nucleation. All the carbon dioxide in the soda all that fizz is squeezed into the liquid and looking for a way out. This procedure prevented the explosion of the bottle during heating, but the early release of some of the carbon dioxide gas may have caused these reactions to be less explosive than the cold or room temperature trials. All of our results seem to contradict the aforementioned Mythbusters experiment. Load seven Mentos into your paper roll or yourGeyser Tubeand drop them into the soda and immediately record the data. QUESTIONS: 1. This in turns means that the carbon dioxide gas is more rapidly released. Turn from eerie green to blood red when you hold it up to the light. WebFun Science Experiments // Mentos and Coke / Soda ExperimentIncludes BOTH US size and Australian A4 sized files/spelling!This fun experiment explores the physical reaction Everyone found their own method for quickly dropping the Mentos into the soda. This all boils down to the presence (or lack thereof) of sugar. What would happen if you had Coke and Mentos? Some helpful comments were made by the anonymous referees. The seltzer and tonic water were not Coca-Cola products, and it was not possible to find seltzer and tonic water with the same expiration date as the Coke products. Nucleation sites are the regions where the carbon dioxide gas gathers and forms bubbles. Discover how science and magic have always been connected! The Mythbusters correctly identified potassium benzoate and aspartame as key ingredients in the Diet CokeMentos reaction. Place the index card and candies over the mouth of the bottle. It is very high for bubbles that form in the liquid itself (homogeneous nucleation), and much lower if bubble growth occurs within tiny bubbles trapped in some other surface (heterogeneous nucleation). The answer is a little more complicated than you might think. Try dropping an object, like a raisin or a piece of uncooked pasta, into a glass of soda. In addition to the six outlined experiments, weve included suggestions for further fun, giving your future chemist more opportunities to learn and grow.