Why does mentos causes soda to explode

Generally, water molecules like to stay next to each other, which prevents any dissolved gases from collecting. However, when offered a surface, called a nucleation site, dissolved gases such as carbon dioxide can gather, eventually forming a bubble. The sides of a bottle serve this purpose. When the bubble gets big enough, it breaks surface tension with the side of the bottle and floats up.

A bottle of soda that gets shaken up releases the gas bubbles into the solution, making the soda supersaturated with carbon dioxide. This causes the carbon dioxide to get released quicker when you open it, causing a foamy explosion. Mentos candies accelerate this reaction through two primary means. Use a tape measure and blue painter's tape to mark off the height from the top of the bottle in meters. Then repeat this activity three times, with the bottle in front of the tape-marked wall, video taping it each time.

When you review the recordings, use slow motion and pause the recording when the spout is at its maximum height. Using the tape marks in the background, estimate the height of the spout. Calculate the average height of the fountains for the whole and for the crushed Mentos.

What is the difference in height of the eruptions? You can try testing different kinds of carbonated beverages, different kinds of candies with different shapes and textures or using other things to start the reaction, like rock salt, pennies or dice.

Which beverages, candies or other things cause the largest and smallest fountains? Why do you think this is? Does temperature affect the eruption height? Observations and results Was the eruption higher when whole Mentos candies were used compared with crushed candies?

Was less Diet Coke left in the bottle after the reaction with the whole candies compared with the crushed ones? In the Diet Coke bottle the Mentos candy provides a rough surface that allows the bonds between the carbon dioxide gas and water to break more easily, helping to create carbon dioxide bubbles.

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 that is still dissolved in the soda to cause more carbon dioxide to be freed and create even more bubbles, resulting in the eruption.

Because Mentos candies are rather dense, they sink rapidly through the liquid, causing a fast, large eruption. The crushed Mentos candies, however, are not as dense as the whole ones, which causes them to sink more slowly, creating a relatively small cola fountain, which should also leave more liquid in the bottle than the larger eruption with whole Mentos candies did. Cleanup Hose off any part of a building that was splashed with Diet Coke.

Each bottle tested had a two-litre capacity, and eleven Mentos were introduced to each bottle. A two-litre bottle has about 15 grams of dissolved carbon dioxide, which, under the right conditions, becomes 8 litres of carbon dioxide gas in just a few seconds.

The types of solutes in the soda mixture also have effects on the height of the fountain. An experiment on Seltzer water, adding various types of solutes, produced the following results:. This mixture was first formulated by an American pharmacist, John S. Pemberton , in — though it was originally marketed as a panacea for common ailments.

The original ingredients of Coca-Cola contained cocaine from coca leaves and caffeine-rich extracts from kola nuts. The present-day ingredients of Coca-Cola classic are a little different:.

Diet Coke and Coke Zero react better with Mentos than regular Coke does because of the absence of sugar. A lack of sugar makes the soda mixture less viscous, given the presence of sweeteners, like aspartame, lowering the surface tension even more than usual. This in turns means that the carbon dioxide gas is more rapidly released. The nucleation process is also faster, leading to higher gas pressure. Rough-surfaced mints without the surfactant did not create such large fountains. Mentos are also fairly dense and sink rapidly, quickly creating bubbles that seed further bubbles as they rise.

Crushed Mentos that fell more slowly created puny fountains that only travelled about 30 centimetres. Trending Latest Video Free. Sterile neutrinos could explain dark matter — if we can find them COP New alliance commits to ending oil and gas extraction Covid news: Coronavirus deaths in Europe rise 10 per cent in a week The hard problem of consciousness is already beginning to dissolve How an upgrade on calculus is taking maths into uncharted territory.